Ready For Special Deliveries

I mentioned a month or so ago about starting a mailbox and post project for the farm. I got permission from the phone company and local land owner to take down a couple of old telephone poles and use them for my project. I also needed to wait for the ground to thaw enough to dig the post hole.

Now before I go on, the post is not set in concrete, and is only set 28 inches in relatively loose ground. If somebody drives off the road and hits it, the post should just pop out of the ground. If a glancing blow hits a cross arm, the metal supposts should bend or the pole should just spin. I wanted a solid post, but not a deadly one if somebody messes up. Now...back to our story!

My brother in law and I went and got the first one, but I quickly discovered that the old cross arms on the poles were too far gone as were the poles themselves. Just putting the cross arm in the truck made it split. The only really salvageable pieces were the metal lightning arrrestor support than goes on the very top of the pole, and the metal cross arm supports.

You may wonder why I want a phone pole for a mailbox post? In my past life, I started my career climbing phone poles as an Installer/Repairman, and I've not seen another phone pole mailbox support, so I figured I'd be pretty unique.

So now you can see how the project turned out. As soon as I find some, I'll be adding glass insulators and and their support pins to complete the look. As is often the case with something old made new, newer parts had to be used to accomplish the finished look. The "phone pole" is made up of an old building post, an old REA cross arm cut to length, and an old 3x5 fence post. The only thing that makes the pole authentic is the metal pieces on it, but only you and I know it. So if you happen to drive by and see it, forget it's make up and think of the old time phone man that had to climb something that looked like it. It brings back fond memories for me.