Sept. Mailbox Decorations

We had a 650 foot STEEP driveway when we lived in Greenwood, Arkansas. One of the joys of living outside of town on top of a ridge line was making decorations for our mailbox and yard.

We used a CNC set up in our shop. This consisted of a computer-guided torch and a table on which we could use the torch to cut out designs from 8′ x 4′ sheet metal.

We would decide what we wanted to make, looking for ideas from the net. My husband had a program that converted pictures to computer language. We would take that information from the office in the house out to our shop.

We cut out the design, then my husband would weld on a mounting bar that we would use to attach the finished design to the mailbox at the bottom of our driveway.

I would transfer the design details onto both sides of the sheet metal with a magic marker and an overhead projector, then use outdoor paint to paint both sides of the design. I protected the finished designs with polyurethane spray.

We changed the decorations twice a month. Some of the designs were geared to what month it was, holidays in that month. and others were favorite cartoon characters. Other married people ‘fight’ about money or the kids. We fought about what to make next and what colors to paint them!

In the background of these pictures, you can see part of the robot we made from scrap metal, welcoming visitors to the house and one of the two owls who stood on either side of the driveway.