Making the old new again

With the first part of this week off, following last weekend's trip to Wisconsin, I finally had a chance (and some nice weather) to get my "new" mailbox installed. It looks all new and shiny, but really it's not. See, my dad had a handful of old mailboxes laying around in one of the many buildings on the farm, so I plucked one up (because the one that came with the house was very rickety), and had him take it to work for sandblasting. When he was done, I gave it a coat of paint, and it was as good as new. I don't think it turned out too bad. If only my Trade Lines box didn't look so sad.

Perhaps the most exciting news of the week, however, may be Augie's new toy. On Tuesday evening, Gretchen, Augie and I went for a post-dinner stroll. And as we were just about home, we noticed a lady had just placed this Thomas train table out to the curb for the trash man to take away. Gretchen quickly hollered at the lady and asked if we could have it. She of course said yes because the table leg was broken and some of the track pieces were missing. A little bit of glue fixed the table leg, and we had some pieces of wooden track that just about completed the track that had been nailed down to the table top. We are now on the hunt for the two remaining pieces. The set is quite a steal because the table itself is about $200 new and there is probably more than that tied up in the track nailed to it. I was more than happy to turn my neighbor's trash into Augie's favorite new toy.

P.S. If anyone has old, wooden tracks that they don't want anymore, Augie would love to have it. More importantly, the two pieces of track that are missing are: A 3" straight track and a 4" curved switch track (it looks like a "y") with two female ends and one male end.