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The biggest problem with the mailbox, actually, was that all but one screw holding it to the post had rusted away! The threaded portions were still in the wood, but, the heads were gone. So much for the protective plating on THOSE screws. The one that was left was simply a fatter screw - a #12, I believe - as it went in a hole that had stripped out So, more of that one was left. This time, I think I'll use deck screws.

All the wood is now cleaned off, primed, and painted. I also got some nice numbers on clearance @ Wally World, to put on the post itself. The ones on the north side of the box had almost baked off, and ditto for the paint (or powder coat?) on the mailbox itself. On the south / sunward / nearer oncoming traffic side, I had already put on heftier reflective numbers, and I'm carefully repainting black around them, B4 repainting the rest of the box. On the north side, the numbers on the post will (now) do.

I also need to move the house numbers on the side of the garage that faces the street, as tree branches are beginning to obscure them. My shop gets a ####-B labelling, and a new / bigger "Deliveries @ rear of house / porch under LARGER awning" sign, so delivery persons don't leave packages exposed out there @ my shop and in view of the road.

My trip to town this morning dragged out by about 2 extra hours...

But it was a very good trip. Ground Round beef in 1 lb. rolls @ Wally World for $2.91 (use or freeze by 8/29, so 4 are in the freezer and one gets cooked in a few hours. Picked up a huge (40 lb.) bag of cat food for my daughter's cats: The varied "colors" in it are gone, apparently a follow-up to taking dyes out of some foods. I wasn't sure how the cats would react to it, but, they seem to like it just fine. I also nabbed a nice gutter (or chicken feed?) scoop on clearance for 75 cents, and a few other clearance items. I might need to return the shirt: Nice orig. $19 shirt for $3, and I love the not too bright / just right red, white, and blue blocky pattern, but, it's 98% cotton, 2% Rayon, so, I'm afraid it will shrink, and if it does, it'll be too small on me. Also on clearance were a few dented cans items (not TOO dented!), a slightly bashed box of cereal, a 6 pack of orange juice (bought it mostly for the nice small bottles to re-use!), and then Aldi had a BUNCH of stuff on clearance, including me nabbing a last bottle of Korean BBQ sauce that was out. Wifey hopefully will like that one! 14 oz., 75 cents. The "mild" jalapeno ranch salad dressing looked interesting to me. (I think that was 75 cents, too.) Milk was $3.06 (ouch), eggs are "down" to $2.72. At least we don't need to buy eggs.

I walked out of ALDI wishing I'd gotten a cart!

Rural King has "Imperial Maran" (large, dark brown eggs) chicks, among others, for half price - $2.25. I passed, but, dang, I may go back, today. We need more hens like a hole in the head, but, ours ARE almost all getting a little long in the tooth, er, beak, and the Marans are really nice birds that lay gorgeous eggs. I have already prepped (re-prepped!) for chicks anyway, as our little black (part bantam) hen sometimes hatches a couple chicks in the Fall, and she's gone broody again.

In the late afternoon I had to pick up wifey from work, as she wanted me along to go over to a friend of hers to help with care for their animals while they are out of town. She has roughly a dozen quail, maybe 3 dozen chickens, a huge turkey, and a most "impressive" (but "knows" my wife well) German Shephard. Wifey takes care of "Inga" while I sit in the car, then after doing her business Inga goes back into the house, and I feed, water, etc., all the birds. So, each day this adds a ~ 50 mile trip, unless I needed to go to town anyway - then it's just a few miles extra.

I ran out of time yesterday, but, I noticed Lowe's has 1 cu. ft. bags of garden soil 3 for $10. So, I've shoved my Lowe's gift card in my wallet and will pick up 3 bags to try out. When my rebates card arrives from Menards, I'll try out their composted manure too, and compare. (It's cheaper, for one thing, but the nutrients may be more "unbalanced?")

Rural King had a couple sizes of light duty Wolverine Boots, $50 reg. (they say) marked down to $20. Wolverine footwear isn't what it used to be (!), but, for $20, they were fairly comfy, not too heavy, and roomy, supposedly waterproof - might be a decent moderate use winter boot. Hopefully they don't fall apart quickly, like the Wolverine boots my Dad gave me B4 he passed! (A glue incompatibility problem, I think - hopefully they have fixed it.)

Gas has jumped up by 25 cents - yikes. Apparently a BP refinery in Indiana flooded in a t'storm. Hopefully that spike will be temporary, but I needed gas & at the time didn't know why the spike so... Ouch - ouch - ouch...

Last night wasn't quite so cool, so I opened up the windows, and in the middle of the night was woken up by a bunch of noisy owls. I went out, and they seemed to be all along the treeline along road, passing the east part of our property. There were at least 5 of them -- a whole "parliament" of owls, it is called. And just as noisy, so, I get the connection. (It can't be "wisdom", human parliaments are much too dumb!)

I've never witnessed that before: SEVERAL noisy owls together in the wee hours. Their eyes reflecting back at me was pretty cool, but, I needed to sleep! I finally threw a hickory nut at one, and they shut up, and I retired back to bed...

Well...! Ya' can't have them arrested for disturbing the peace!