A FROG POND STORY

By Steve Trash - Illusionist, Eco-Educator, and Rockin' Eco Hero

The mailbox was old and needed to be replaced (there were now new homeowners and the door of the mailbox had completely rusted off)... So the new owner kindly gave it to our family as a keepsake/family memory (it had been the Art Goddesses' - Grandmother and Grandfather's home and mailbox for years and years and years).  Over this past year or so, I had noticed that even though the house was "vacant", the mailbox was not "vacant" (I jog past it every day).  A bird had taken up residence... nested... laid eggs... made baby birds.  So I decided I'd plant this mailbox in a garden right in front of our home, in the hopes that a new bird family might find a home here, with us, at our home.   But, to make this happen, I needed something that I didn't have.  A mailbox needs a post.  It's needs a good, strong, solid post.  It needs a post preferably cedar (cedar is a very solid, solid, solid, hardwood that will last many years buried in the ground).  So I went searching.  The first few posts I found weren't very solid (pine mostly).  Finally... I found a cedar post.  It was just the right size.  It was just the right material... cedar.   It had been leaning against our "horse barn" for years and years.   In fact, it had originally been the "gate fence" post that kept the horses (Frisky, Dave, Apache) in the field just above our house.  This post had family history too.  It had been cut, nailed, buried, and secured in place by the Art Goddess and her kids (Jennifer, Aaron, and Emily) when they first moved onto this land in the early 1980's.  Because we no longer have horses and the field has been reclaimed by nature... I'd pulled that post out of the ground to make way for a tractor several years ago... It had been waiting patiently for some grand new purpose.  Yesterday, I found that purpose.  A family post, with a family mailbox, for a family to live in.  #sometimesitsthemeaningyougivestuffthatmakesyousmile  #lifeisgood  #frogpondfamily #sweethomealabama #frogpondsstyle