I need to vent about the postal service and snowbanks

[mightymoo]

New England has been hit by a bunch of storms lately. For some reason, our town snow plows plow the road 4 feet from our mailbox, which sits at the edge of the actual pavement. This left a snowbank literally 3 feet high by 3-4 feet wide in front of my mailbox. The mailman refuses to deliver my mail because I haven't shoveled out my mailbox the day after this storm. Not to mention I spent 2+ hours shoveling the night before and did remove snow from in front of the mailbox.

So I go back out last night and shovel it out more. I shovel out a 6 foot of roadside of densely packed snowbank for access to the mailbox. Today, I retrieve my mail (nice of him to actually deliver it as this is the first time in days he's done so) and it contains a note that tells me I'm supposed to shovel 30 FEET on either side of my mailbox, for a total of 60 FEET of roadside so he can access the mailbox. Because the snowbank is literally 3 feet high by 3 feet wide all along this snowbank, we are talking about 250-350 cubic feet of densely packed wet plowed snowbank. At 20lbs a square foot, that means the post office expects me to shovel somewhere between 2.5 and 3.5 TONS of snow to get my mail delivered.

I am just so irritated about this - if they don't like that the roadside is plowed badly, they should take it up with the town. My chest is already killing me today from shoveling what I shoveled out yesterday.

And what gets my goat is that there are tons of mailboxes in my town that are on the house itself, so the postman has to walk up to deliver the mail - so the town plows my road badly and the mailman literally withholds my mail from me to make me shovel it, but he's walking up to other people's houses to deliver their mail.

[cristeen]

I'd remove the mailbox at the curb and put it at the house... that way *you* don't have to walk out in all that snow to retrieve it.

I'd also call the local post office and complain to the manager that your mailman left that note, and then ask if they leave that same note for their elderly and disabled customer as well.

What ever happened to "neither rain nor sleet nor snow..."?

[mightymoo]

I'm not sure I can legally move the mailbox, I think they have put regulations in place which say you have to request permission to move it, but those with it already on their houses are grandfathered. Also the "note" was a photocopied Postal Service regulations thing, so I doubt complaining about it will get me anywhere.

I am going to call the town department of public works and complain about the amount of snow they plow in front of the mailbox, because other people on my street are plowed much closer.

I'm just tempted to put a hold on my mail and pick it up at the post office because it would honestly be easier than shoveling the snowbank off half the length of the property.

[zeldabee]

Originally Posted by mightymoo

I'm just tempted to put a hold on my mail and pick it up at the post office because it would honestly be easier than shoveling the snowbank off half the length of the property.

That's what I would do. You could fight them until kingdom come, and never win. I wouldn't kill myself shoveling, that's for sure. You'd need your own snowplow.

[mightymoo]

We are debating buying a snowblower, its just too much around here to do it by hand. To add to the annoyance, I was actually planning to go out and buy a snowblower thursday when I realized my front tires were bald and spent all afternoon in the repair shop trying to get new tires, then came home and shoveled for 2 hours while my kids ran around unsupervised inside my house. So when friday afternoon the postman refused to deliver my mail because I hadn't shoveled out enough snow I was POed to say the least. Now of course it doesn't make sense to go buy the snowblower becuase it will be cheaper probably if I wait until after christmas and its no longer snowing.

[Rebecca]

Originally Posted by mightymoo

I'm just tempted to put a hold on my mail and pick it up at the post office because it would honestly be easier than shoveling the snowbank off half the length of the property.

That's exactly what I would have suggested. Is the 30 ft thing so he can just drive up to your mailbox without having to get out of his truck?

We LOVE our snowblower, btw. I don't know how we survived without it. It's paid for itself, we use it so much.

[mightymoo]

Originally Posted by Rebecca

We LOVE our snowblower, btw. I don't know how we survived without it. It's paid for itself, we use it so much.

Yeah, I'm feeling like this is a quality of life kinda thing. Sure, they are expensive, but we can afford it, and I'm thinking its benefits will greatly outweight the cost. Mind sharing what kind you have?

[ctdoula]

Ugh, that stinks. And that plowed snow is H.E.A.V.Y!!!! I know, my dh blew out the engine in our snowblower and I ended up shoveling our entire driveway.

I just don't understand why they don't plow to the edge? that seems insane to me. I've lived in NE my entire life & have never lived in a town that did that. In fact, our mailbox is a few inches from the pavement on an steep bank (only about 3' high), and the snow plows actually bent it over w/their plowing.

[Rebecca]

We have a john deere. I forget what model, but it has electric start, which is awesome. We were everyone's new best friend this past week when I snowblowed out half the neighborhood, and my dad practically did everyone else. :

Hi Amy! Beccareilly here.

[mightymoo]

Originally Posted by ctdoula

Ugh, that stinks. And that plowed snow is H.E.A.V.Y!!!! I know, my dh blew out the engine in our snowblower and I ended up shoveling our entire driveway.

I just don't understand why they don't plow to the edge? that seems insane to me. I've lived in NE my entire life & have never lived in a town that did that. In fact, our mailbox is a few inches from the pavement on an steep bank (only about 3' high), and the snow plows actually bent it over w/their plowing.

Well we are on the corner of a busier road and a short cul-de-sac, the driveway is on the busy road, but hte mailbox is on the cul-de-sac side, I think the plows take a wider turn at our corner and don't move closer to the edge until they reach the neighbors yard - all the neighbors mailboxes are plowed much closer. :P Since its not a busy road, has only 4 houses on it, the width of it isn't so critical as it is on busier streets.

[mightymoo]

Originally Posted by Rebecca

We have a john deere. I forget what model, but it has electric start, which is awesome. We were everyone's new best friend this past week when I snowblowed out half the neighborhood, and my dad practically did everyone else. :

Thanks! I just like to hear what brands people are happy with and what features are useful.

[Yooper]

This is a fact of life where I live. My mailbox is attached to the actual house, but they still will not deliver unless we shovel out a special path directly from the road rather than up the sidewalk. We get a lot of snow. Like 300+ inches a year. The plow is constantly wrecking our tiny little path as though it were never even there. Then there is a 4 ft wall of compacted ice that even our heavy duty Husquvarna snowblower cannot tackle. So we put a hold on our mail and pick it up at the office. I have to do this nearly every time dh goes out of town on business. While I can eventually shovel it all away, dd gets very unhappy "helping" me and is not old enough to stay inside by herself. It takes at least an hour. I cannot even operate our snowblower. It is made for serious snow and literally is too big and heavy for me to handle. Not to mention I cannot hear dd while using it so it is not safe to do unless someone is watching dd. If I cannot even get the car out to place a hold, which is often, I will just keep an eye out for the postman and meet him in the road. He is cool with it. Often, I will find him somewhere else on our daily walk and he will hand it over then.

[grahamsmom98]

Do you have a truck? It's much easier to buy a blade for a truck and use it to plow for yourself.

A snowblower won't do much on heavy, wet snow that has already been plowed. If the snowbank is already so high from the big plow trucks, you'll have no place to blow the snow except onto the road (which is illegal in most areas!).

We have a snowblower and haven't used it in years. It just sits in our garage. We have a truck-&-blade. We plow our own road and driveway (we're out in the country and there is no county road service).

Maybe you could get a PO box in town?

[mightymoo]

No truck. We live in the suburbs, I think if we buy a decent sized heavy duty snowblower we'll be fine, the snow bank isn't that high, its just too much to do by hand. And of course if we keep doing it as the snow builds up and gets plowed, it won't be so bad, this was the snowbank built as a result of 3 big snow dumps, I'm sure if I had a snowblower I would have had no problem maintaining it.

Our driveway isn't long (like 4-5 cars long), but its a bit long to shovel by hand, we end up only shoveling two cars worth out are having to shuffle them constantly.

[Yooper]

Originally Posted by mightymoo

No truck. We live in the suburbs, I think if we buy a decent sized heavy duty snowblower we'll be fine, the snow bank isn't that high, its just too much to do by hand. And of course if we keep doing it as the snow builds up and gets plowed, it won't be so bad, this was the snowbank built as a result of 3 big snow dumps, I'm sure if I had a snowblower I would have had no problem maintaining it.

Our driveway isn't long (like 4-5 cars long), but its a bit long to shovel by hand, we end up only shoveling two cars worth out are having to shuffle them constantly.

A snowblower should do the trick. They are quite easy to find used. Stay AWAY from Sear's. Their snowblowers blow.... Make sure you have a pack of shear pins handy, those go all of the time and try to get one that all of the adults can use, not like the beast we have. But in dh's defense, we bought it when we lived in a place with a 1/4 mile unplowable driveway. Heated handles are very nice