I say that not as a guess in response to this rope and pulley mailbox, but because I know it for a fact. He built this house (on the right) at the same time my former building partner was building one across the street, and I came by a few times to watch, as it”s rather unorthodox in a few ways, as in the the way a single engineer might be inclined to design and build a house. This is just the finishing touch.
I might have thought the post office might have an issue with it, but apparently not.
As a lazy man, I love it! Back when I was single I had the rubbish bin positioned under my deck with a rope from the lid up to the deck.
My neighbours got used to the sound of beer bottles smashing. Eventually.
Laziness is a vice.
EPIC laziness is an art.
.
Gromit! Get the post!
I can appreciate the engineering effort. 🙂
My dog has no interest in fetching the mail, but he loves trying to scare the mailman off with his big bark.
+1
In true Rube Goldberg fashion, that has to take twice as long to stand there and pull on that rope as it would to just walk to the street and get the mail.
Yes, but you don’t have to put on pants!
Kinda like working today. ;o)
Not if it was motorized.
OTOH, this seems like it would be a way-too-tempting target for bored teenagers with a baseball bat or M80.
Kinda reminds me of one of Data’s failed inventions in The Goonies, which readers of a certain age might remember was set in Oregon (Astoria)
Thanks to the enforced leisure of our existence in April 2020, I finally watched that movie all the way thru for the first time. Lots of things to catch up on. My GF was astounded I’d never seen it.
The Post Office should appreciate his efforts. The mailbox has its own Zipline Code.
You should see the toilet.
I used to live in an old house where the mailbox was mounted on the front wall right next to the front door. I moved to a newer house where the mailbox is mounted at the curb, about 90 feet from my front door. Pandemic or no, I need something like this.
Not too far from me a guy as created a pivoting box. It is on a bigger road that has a pretty significant ditch in front of his house and no sidewalks. So he walks into his yard, grabs a handle, spins the box 180 degrees, gets the mail and spins it back around for the next time.
Similarly, my neighbor has a mailbox that has a door on each end.
Funny, but I’ve never seen him use the door that faces the house.
Maybe he hasn’t noticed that mailbox’s functionality.
I would expect that being an engineer, he looked into the US Postal Service regulations about curbside mailboxes. Note that an immovable mounting is NOT required, though the dimensions of post mountings, if used, are specified. My own mailbox is on a post which is not buried at all, but on a bracket, attached with hex nuts to 1/2″ masonry bolts driven into concrete.
Basically:
Curbside mailboxes must be placed on the right-hand side of the road and facing outward so that mail carriers can access it easily without leaving their vehicle.
The box or house number on a mailbox must be represented in numbers that are at least 1 inch tall. Numbers must be positioned visibly on the front or flag side of the box.
Mailboxes must be placed 6 to 8 inches away from the curb; the incoming mail slot or door must be 41 to 45 inches from the ground.
Curbside mailbox posts should be buried less than 24 inches deep and made from wood no larger than 4 inches high by 4 inches wide. Steel or aluminum pipes with a 2-inch diameter are also acceptable.
Newspaper receptacles may be mounted on the same post as the mailbox, but they must not contact it directly or be supported by it.
This is quite interesting. Since I’ve always purchased existing houses, I’ve never thought about mailbox installation.
My mailbox meets maybe one of these criteria, as it is flush with the curb, has a few letters from my last name in 3/4″ tall letters, and no house number. A kid in a Grand Marquis hit it two years ago; my mailbox was unscathed and his Mercury, well, not so much.
You make me think of all the exceptions I have known. I can recall the occasional mailbox post that was a castoff crankshaft from likely an old straight 8. Then there was one made by a friend maybe 15 years ago – a pair of 8 foot railroad ties sunk 4 feet into the ground with just enough room between them to mount the mailbox. He was mad after some kids with baseball bats smashed multiple boxes on his road. Nobody’s touched it since.
I suspect your mailbox has to be pretty odd for the Postal Service to make a stink about it.
“If the women don’t find you handsome, they might as well find you handy.”
(PS I’m stuck midway between Red Green and Desmo’s Wallace and Gromit nod.)
I would have liked a pneumatic system like they use at the bank!
Well that sure is neat looking, thank you for sharing.