After days of not getting his mail, Ray Lachance resorted to using clear packing tape to stick his beat-up mailbox on top of his newspaper delivery box to raise it high enough to clear the snowbanks.

That wasn't an option for Axel Kjellander, whose crevasse-like snowbanks required him to use a bucket on the end of a long stick as a makeshift mailbox that reaches out onto the road like a mailbox fishing rod.

Sound familiar?

This winter's heavy snowfall has taken its toll on area mailboxes, making it difficult or impossible for mail carriers to deliver and thus requiring a little ingenuity on the part of homeowners.

A glance at the roadsides around the Lakes Region reveals a variety of mailbox conditions, with some being smashed, tipped over, crushed like tin cans or buried altogether.

Residents say mail carriers have been having trouble reaching boxes and if the effort becomes too difficult, they get letters notifying them that they won't get delivery until they are cleared away.

However for those who are having trouble digging into the feet of icy snow, they must move them closer to the road, putting them in the line of fire of plow drivers who often can't see them as they clear the way for motorists.

Lachance lives on Roller Coaster Road in Laconia, which has several mailbox modifications designed to allow mail carriers to get to boxes that have been buried or hammered repeatedly by plows.

He said his mail box has been in place for 10 years with little problems, but when the road was upgraded a few years back for a sewer project, they raised the road and left it lower than before.

Add in ice buildup and snow from this year's storms and the Lachance family was notified by the U.S. Postal Service that they would no longer be getting delivery.

LaChance responded by digging it out more but eventually realized he was losing the war as ice and snow mounted.

He then used the packing tape, sticking his mailbox on top of his newspaper box to raise it up.

"They were ready to stop delivering again and with everything being buried that was all I could do," he said.

He said the box has been hit by the plow and was buried completely for a while before he was pushed to find a solution that —although temporary and not pretty — works.

"It was so the wife would get off my back and they would deliver again. So far, so good," said Lachance with a chuckle.

Kjellander also lives on Roller Coaster Road and found himself in a similar situation, only his efforts to dig it out found him with a hole "a refrigerator could fit in."

He decided the best option would be to use dry-wall screws to connect a bucket to a long pole stuck in the snowbank.

He put his mailing information and address on the bucket with a small American Flag and takes the makeshift mailbox in every night to avoid it disappearing. His real mailbox is buried six feet behind it in a snowbank.

"It's been like that for a good month. I see more and more people with the same idea," said Kjellander.

He said he's been getting his mail now, though he isn't thrilled with the amount of effort needed to get that accomplished.

"At times like this you have to come up with something," said Kjellander.

And Kjellander and Lachance aren't the only ones coming up with such quick-fixes.

Around the Lakes Region are battered mailboxes that are strapped onto battered or leaning posts with everything from duct-tape to bungee cords.

Laconia Public Works Office Manager Ann Saltmarsh said this winter has been far worse than past years in terms of the number of plows hitting or damaging everything from mailboxes and lawns to fences and even steps.

"We don't do it on purpose. Very often people have them close to the road and just by the nature of the location, it's a dangerous place. We ask them to move them out of the line of fire," said Saltmarsh.

Public Works officials say plow drivers often can't see mailboxes as they hit the roads during storms.

"Ninety-nine times out of one hundred, we can't see it (and) when you push heavy, wet snow forward, it's like iron," explained Saltmarsh.

One of the best looking mailboxes being temporarily relaced by buckets in the Lakes Region can ne found along Roller Coaster Road in Laconia. Between record amounts of snow and plows moving it onto higher and higher bankings, mailboxes are either buried or missing completely. (DARYL CARLSON/CITIZEN PHOTO) * Order a print of this photo

Laconia's Public Works Department has a "plow damage list" that results from calls from property owners about damage caused from plows. She said the DPW keeps the numbers on file and — once the winter is over — they go out and assess the damage to either repair or replace the casualties of winter.

"We've had 20 mailbox complaints (this year), which is four times more than normal," said Saltmarsh.

And residents in more rural communities are also experiencing difficulties.

Peter Dascoulias lives on Black Brook Road in Sanbornton and went out to his driveway during a Feb. 14 storm to find his mailbox nearly knocked off the post despite it being shoveled out.

He drove up the road to find that more than a dozen mailboxes had been hit by a plow, with his neighbor's getting ripped off its granite post.

"His mailbox went flying into the road with mail in it," said Dascoulias.

He said the plow driver stopped to hand his neighbor the box but noted he had no explanation for why so many had been damaged.

Dascoulias once served as a selectman and said he knows mailboxes get damaged, but he said several being plowed over on one road was a little much. He sent pictures and a letter to the Board of Selectmen.

Meanwhile local hardware stores are preparing for an influx in customers looking for mailbox materials needed to make repairs.

Mike Fecteau, the manager of Trustworthy Hardware, said residents appear to be holding off on fixes this year until they are sure the snowstorms have ended.

He said Trustworthy sells a fair amount of "armored" mailboxes made of double-layered steel that can usually take a licking without being crushed.

"It weighs a ton. The box will hold up ... the post is another story," said Fecteau with a laugh.