The new mailman has to go...

He tromped his huge size 14 boot with massive treads all over some of my iris delivering the mail. Does he walk on the grassy area like everyone else? No. He chooses the part with the delicate green shoots huddled against the cold.

Double Your Fun alas will not be doubling itself or its fun this spring. It was pulled right out of the ground and smushed...mashed...pulverized...and no small feat considering everything is pretty much frozen right now.

Rest in peace, DYF.

If I'm home, I hereby will NOT be quieting my boxer the next time Tromper comes delivering the mail.

Rant over.

Maxs - I believe that you can file a complaint against your mailman with the head postal guy at your local post office. Don't bother with calling the USPS, they won't do squat. But, it must be nice to have home delivery.. I'm too "rural" to have mail delivered to my house, so they put the mail in this mailbox thingie that's out in the cold & snow.. and heaven help you if you're getting a package delivered.. it might make it to your house, or your neighbor's house, or two streets over, or just sits & rots at the post office for a weekend! I hate the USPS. I think, also, if you put little stakes up w/a string & a sign saying "Do Not Walk On Yard", they have to abide by that rule and walk around it. I know we did that, but that was years & years & years ago (20+.. my god am I old. :( )

We have a large rural mailbox as well. However with a big package, they come down the driveway with it. Small pk can fit in the box. the size leads to other problems like teenagers who like to drive along the road & hit everyone's mailboxes. DH hung it on a post about windshield high. One person got so fustrated with that & attacked it with a baseball bat. We could hear it. Again there was the time when a scavenger hunt was held by people in another town........

We're in the city so we do get home delivery. But that just means every little inch anything is growing is all the more precious.

I'll consider complaining...our local post office is a nightmare. A few of us (neighbors) tried over the summer about the male mail carrier who literally was delivering the mail in running shorts and a tank top. It didn't seem to make much of a difference.

We don't have to worry about losing mailboxes to driving teens; though we did lose our big blue mailbox on the corner from the kids dumping all sorts of unmentionables into it.

Somehow my friends and I (and my brothers') were all too busy doing other things to make the mailbox our trash can. Go figure. Maybe we just weren't 'creative' enough?

But thanks for listening and commiserating... : )

Maxsmomma, you're thinking about complaining. You're not thinking productively.

You are certain it was him that did it? If the answer is yes.....

Was there a clear walkway or driveway for him to access your box, whether it was on a post or at the door? If the anwer is yes.....

then your mailcarrier damaged your property and disregarded a clear and safe route to complete his job.

GO TO THE HEAD OFFICE.
WAIT TO TALK TO THE HEAD MAN, as long as it takes.
TAKE A CLEARLY TYPED WRITTEN DESCRIPTION of what happened. Proof read it six times and get all the "I think this is what happened" and the emotionally words, etc. Boil it down to who, how, when where, description of damage. Clearly state how many rhizomes were damaged, because you've had increase, right?

PRINT OFF AN ONLINE SELLERS DESCRIPTION OF DYF COMPLETE WITH PRICE TAG and attach it to the written damage description. Better yet, attach a copy of your receipt for DYF.

TAKE A PHOTO OF THE CRUSH DAMAGE and uprooting. PRINT IT OUT and attach it. If Possible, take a photo of the walkway/driveway that should have been used. If possible, record how wide this walkway/driveway is, so they know it was wide enough to allow passage of the delivery.

PRINT OUT AND ATTACH AN INVOICE FOR YOUR TIME AND EFFORT AND THE REPLACEMENT COST OF THE PLANTS. MARK IT "INVOICE TO REPAIR DAMAGES" and use the phrase "to restore property to its original condition prior to damage occurring"

MAKE TWO COPIES. GIVE ONE TO THE HEAD MAN. ASK HIM "WHERE DO I FILE THIS?"

MAKE CERTAIN BEFORE YOU LEAVE EXACTLY HOW LONG YOU SHOULD WAIT BEFORE COMING BACK AGAIN IN PERSON TO CHECK FOR A RESPONSE. They will probably say, "you should have a written answer in 4 weeks, or 60 days. PUSH THIS PART THE MOST. let them know you will be back at the end of that time. DO NOT LEAVE WITHOUT AN ANSWER. DON'T GET STRIDENT, WEEPY, OR NASTY. IF THEY HEM AND HAW, BE FIRM, LIKE YOU WOULD WITH A TODDLER. "sorry isn't enough here, I need to know exactly how long I am to wait. there's a statue of limitations on making damage claims." GO BACK EXACTLY THE DAY BY WHICH YOU SHOULD HAVE HEARD. mark your calendar if necessary.

the USPS is now a private company, no longer the Federal Government exempt from lawsuit for damages. Like any other private company delivering to your property, if they enter it and damage it, they are liable for the damage, and they bloody well know it.

You may not get a dime. But I can assure you it will never happen again. That fellow will lose his cushy job (and it is rather a cushy job for most of them) if it does.

Folks have to put up with complainers all the time. They pay 1,000 times more attention if they have to cough up $$.

Max,

Boy. can I relate! We have a bunch of adolecent kids that play their ball (football, baseball, softball, etc) and they almost always wind up going over the fence and damaging our plants...GRRRRRRRRR. DH would go over and talk with the parents and their arguement is we don't like kids and let them have their fun!
Problem is we can't prove anything without standing outside 24/7 with a video camera to be able to catch them...
I can't wait til we move in a few years. I told my DH I want to get just outside of the county lines where the land is much cheaper and we get 20 acres...I want NO neighbors!!!!
Between those kids, other neighbors of ours raising the population of feral cats and another with a dog that will bark for hours at a time, I've had it...Humph
Stepping off my soapbox...

I can relate, too. Used to have a neighbor's boy run through my flower beds nearly daily. His parents insisted he was raised not to do such things. One day he did it directly in front of DH!

Then he and his friends played cowboys and indian, tied our youngest, ten years younger than him, to a tree outback in the greenway behind our homes, out of sight of our house, and left her there. Our son heard her screaming about an hour later, and found her scared witless and broken hearted. I think our son, same age but much shorter yet with a lion's heart, put the fear of God in the kid. But I started house hunting that next day. The parents were good neighbors and nice folks, just had a blind spot to all the damage their boy did.

I used to have a nice, fenced in yard, but the neighbor's laborador retriever would get loose every once in a while, jump the 5-ft fence, and run gleefully through my iris rows, breaking numerous stalks. It was sooooooo frustrating waiting an entire year for a new plant to bloom, only to have the stalk broken off by this dog! Inevitably, the stalk was just young enough it would not bloom if stuck in water. I can't tell you how sick it made me. So, now I have 3 acres in the country, no neighbors with dogs, and have a state park on 2 sides of me. Altho I have deer, I also have a German Shepherd -- who I trained to stay out of my iris -- who does a pretty good job keeping the deer out of the iris. Not so good with raccoons, possums, etc., but good with the deer! I haven't lost any stems to animals for a couple of years, TG!

Maxsmomma
I'll send you a new "Double Your Fun" to replace the damaged one.

I moved to the country 30 + years ago to get away from city life. Guess what? They followed me. I'm rural but it's just like being in the city and worst because rules and regulation for rentals is lax and very seldom upheld so now I'm surrounded in rental trailers I wouldn't keep my dogs in,transit neighbors that have no vested interest in the community ,speeders/dragracers and herds of kids and dogs that are allowed to roam the neighborhood at all hours of the day and night and weather.


Now I would love to live on top of a privately owned moutain with one road in with a clear veiw from a porch I could sit on with a double barrel peashooter.

People have become so self-important that nothing matters to them except what the want...To He!! w/ anyone living close to them.


Peggy...down from my soapbox....temporarily


Edited to say: I have a great mailcarrier that will get out of her truck in any weather to place over sized packages between the storm door and wooden kitchen door.

This message was edited Jan 30, 2010 7:59 AM

We are semi rural & neighbors fine, especially the one just north of us. Of course they have an interest in doing well & after a number of roaming dog yrs. & their leavings, about 10 yrs ago the town finally passed a leash law.

"country" living is only as good as the neighbors. Country folk are salt of the earth, know how to live well and off the land, and reach out to their neighbors in times of need.

But folks can live out "on the land" a lot cheaper than in the city, and for that reason the "sticks" do pick up a lot of broken, or tainted, folks. if they want it to, the country can help them heal and become strong. But if all they want to do is raise holy H - - - where "no one can see or complain", well, then they think they can with impunity.

Our neighbors are the best neighbors in the whole world. They would do anything, and have, to help us out. We bought 63 acres smack in the middle of a family farm. So we have Taylors all up the road, and us. No one else on the road on our side. And we are all their backyards. Although they all have 5-10 acres, we own all the woods behind them. So they hunt on our property, and ride four wheelers, and snowmobile. But never without asking, and never annoyingly.

We used to have a loving dog, Bandit. Bandit had seizures, and was a huge dog. He was also an escape artist, so he would hear someone coming before we did, and take off out the door when it was opened. I think over the years at least five different Taylors carted him back in their vehicles.

We're over a half mile back in the woods, and times we've been iced in or snowed in, they've worked their way up to us. We try to repay the kindnesses, but they are so self sufficient it's hard.

But how blessed we are to have neighbors like the Taylors.

Polly, how wonderful!

Mitt, I always get such a warm feeling from posts like yours on DG... thank you for being part of the generous spirit that makes this place great!

After years of "temporary" mail carriers, plants left in the heat, boxes crammed so tightly into the mailbox I had to remove them with pliers, etc... Now we have a new one, a gal, and she's just delightful. She's friendly, and she does her job right... packages get brought up to the door, she rings the bell, and if I'm not home she leaves them in a sheltered spot on the porch. She's not a gardener, but her MIL-to-be is, so I'm trying to encourage her. She's planning a wedding, wanted orange flowers, but nothing with a strong scent bec. one of the bridesmaids is allergic... I suggested asiatic lilies, and she looked up a couple of cultivars I mentioned... she's thrilled, and fortunately her florist can make it happen LOL. So I'm happy knowing that as long as it's her route, my flowerbeds are safe, and my mail ordered seeds and plants will be well treated on the final step of their journey here!

Thanks, Mitt!! : )

gotta just say here, my mailcarriers have both loved my iris beds down near the mailbox. The first one was great, then he retired.

The lady that replaced him is so awesome. She knows all about my plants, and gives that little extra effort to make sure she doesn't leave my boxes in the heat. Best of all, she carries small Milk Bones with her. When her truck is visible, our Hope races to greet her, tail a waggin'. She's already asked me, "when do the irises bloom again?"

my mailcarrier always tells me she loves looking at all my flowers when she delivers my mail