And now, for a different kind of adventure!

Several months ago, a bit after I started boxing, I stumbled upon SHH's blog My H'art in Rubber.  It's been quite inspirational to me over the last several months - seeing her gorgeous! carves was what made me decide to start challenging myself with more difficult carves of my own.  And it was the beautiful pictures of LTCs at the bottom of her page that got me interested in doing LTCs myself - after all, I'm unlikely to visit the Pacific Northwest any time soon, and I just had to get my hands on some of those!
Since then, I've seen several people's blogs with pictures of LTCs.  And they are all just fabulous!  So, then I decided, I had to get my hands on those too!

Now, I found myself wondering, "How exactly does one get all these gorgeous LTCs?".  And I learned, you exchange them in swaps or one for one.  So, if I need to exchange for these little treasures, I have to make some of my own!  A new crafting endeavor!  Rastaman is going to kill me!  I signed up for three swaps that are due in March (figuring that March is plenty of time, since school doesn't start back up until late January).

This morning, I broke out the cardstock, my paper cutter, and little cutting template.  And quickly discovered that I apparently can not measure accurately, and that the blade of the paper cutter is really really dull.  So, I tried again - this time with scissors, which worked like a charm.  Then I found that my black ink pad is really dry and that hobby stores are closed on Christmas, and the stamp I carved was way too large.  So, I carved a smaller stamp, and rethought my plan.

After much trial and error, I finally got a working mock-up!  Which was followed by a sideways grin from Rastaman at all of my excitement - who was trying to watch movies at the time.  Two movies later, I finished everything up...  I'm really happy with them.  A lovely tribute to Roy Lichtenstein if I do say so myself!  I can't wait to see the other cards in the swap come March!

Tomorrow, I think I'll tackle the cards for the Labyrinth movie swap...  And Monday, I'll work on my stamp for the Enlightenment swap...I'm so excited - I can see myself running out of PZKut very quickly at this rate.  What a good problem to have!

So, today's Lessons in Letterboxing (or rather Letterbox Trading Cards):

• Measure twice, cut once - applies not just to housework, but paper-cutting as well.
• A variety of inks is important to have, and something I am certainly lacking.
• A variety of cardstock colors is also important - and something I do have!  :-)

Happy Hunting (and Crafting)!
Rogue Artist

A Victoria-n Yule-mas

Friday night, we headed down to Victoria to celebrate an early holiday with my sister, her friends, my mom, my grandma and my family.  We have a hodge-podge of various religious holidays that different people celebrate in my family, so it is fondly called Yulemas.  When my husband and I first started having holidays together, we decided to hold our celebrations on neither of our holidays and to combine the names (that way we were be both equally respectful and disrespectful to both holidays).  This odd tradition of ours has taken hold with the rest of the family.  So, anyway....

On Saturday night, we traveled down to a town called Sinton for a ship holiday party - we had a grand time finally getting to meet the rest of the crew on the USS Joan of Arc.  We had a fabulous time with the Ferengi Gift Exchange, and I walked away with a wonderful copy of the new Star Trek DVD that has a special case shaped like the USS Enterprise.  Which is now proudly sitting on top of the living room TV.  :-)

Sunday morning, we opened presents.  I was absolutely thrilled to get tons of warm clothes (I've been freezing!), a Catholic Bible, a translation of the Latin Vulgate (because I don't plan on learning Latin!), and my very own copy of the Hebrew Tanakh.  Of course, now I have to learn to read Hebrew sooner than later, but that's just a really good excuse to do something I was already going to do anyway!  :-)  Mom and Grandma left in the afternoon, and we all made new character sheets for a game of D&D.

On Monday, my sister had to work.  :-(  So, we passed the time with Agent X playing new games he got, Rastaman watching new movies he got, and me preparing letterboxes for planting.  When we had come down for Thanksgiving, we discovered that the one box in the county had gone missing, so I had come prepared for planting with all of my box making supplies.

This morning, we planted three boxes in downtown Victoria before heading home.  One is a stamp I carved from an eraser on our last trip, and then two boxes with a holiday theme.  I just couldn't resist making boxes that said "Victoria-n Christmas" in them - there's so many pretty Victorian era houses in the area.

Fabulous trip!  Other Texas boxers are discussing Victoria on the Yahoo group we have, and there's a couple who plan on looking for them soon.  Exciting!  :-)  Which means that maybe other boxers will plant some on their way through town, giving us something to find next time we're down there!  YAY!

So, here's today's Lessons in Letterboxing:

• Always bring carving supplies on trips.  Because people leave you all alone and you need something to do so you don't go kill them for abandoning you.
• And bring lots of box making supplies.  Just in case you're in a boxing desert - because one person can change a desert into a mini-oasis for long car trips.
• And remember to print the darn clues for the boxes along the route you ALWAYS take and keep them in the boxing bag! 
  

Happy Hunting!
Rogue Artist

A Puzzling Trek

Without further ado, I present the clues for my new Star Trek series, A Puzzling Trek!
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Starfleet is an international fan organization for fans of Gene Rodenberry's most wonderful of creations, Star Trek.  I am a correspondence member of the USS Joan of Arc, located in Corpus Christi.  There are ships all over that fans create and run - here in the DFW Metroplex, we have the USS Regulator in Weatherford, and a strictly correspondence chapter in Euless called the Space Station Freedom.  Ships will usually meet every month, usually for fun stuff like game night, or to watch a favorite episode.  Additionally, ships all over are involved in community service projects - my ship collects coupons for overseas military families, helps in book drives, and helps with the annual local PBS auction.  Children and adults alike can take classes at the Starfleet Academy - it has fun classes like learning to speak Klingon, but also practical real-world stuff, like first aid, survival skills, and cryptology (important stuff for us letterboxers!).

The world of Star Trek fandom is a wonderful place, and it's a ton of fun.  If you enjoy Star Trek, I encourage you to consider joining your local ship or becoming a correspondence member.  After finding the boxes I've planted, of course!  :-)

Welcome to Starfleet!  Congratulations on graduating from the Academy!  Ensign, you are hereby ordered to report to Walnut Creek Linear Park entrance at James McKnight Park East in Mansfield, Texas, in order to be issued your comm badge and be assigned to your permanent duty station.

In order to locate the comm badge, solve the fill-in puzzle.  Unscramble the letters in the highlighted squares to spell another Star Trek related word – this will be your key to the ciphered clue below.
yiwn usi lpf bbmw gggtzfup ggeluot hedd kw uip gwgkms pq xzx wwvsel uheksfei tefkl, ufvf evnu byh otcs 22 tuptk mf i mbckw kvl pbv xjxv bibe lsl kih #138 py ml,  rfcs dzqeneqdbesj urlhf tw sm kpf clww be i ojnlw tk bif dsmmy ajep sx mym uspi.

Now, you will need to report to your permanent duty station!  Complete the word search – when you’re done, the unused letters will spell out (left to right, top to bottom) your key for the next cipher.
pkjsbjui cgkjr lcsd sk sdi nboqs aijpd kj obrds (jks lbpjbp scagi) cjt dcvi c qics, kj sdi ksdio qbti kn sdi lcsd cjt qgbrdsgy sk sdi obrds yku wbgg qii c soii sdcs dcq aiij qsoupf ay gbrdsjbjr, ykuo qdbl bq cwcbsbjr cs sdi acqi kn sdbq soii, kj sdi qbti nuosdiqs nokh sdi lcsd.

Attention all hands!  We’ve been assigned to an important diplomatic mission to Qo’noS, the Klingon homeworld.  Find the coordinates to Qo’nos by translating the first set of Klingon phrases to English and using the numbered blanks to fill in the acrostic puzzle:

Oh no!  Factions have formed within the High Council and are threatening to lead to civil war.  You must challenge the leaders of the Council to a duel before they will listen to reason.  You can find your weaponry by completing the following translation acrostic:

Congratulations on your success in battle – I’m certain you bring much honor to your ancestors!

We’re receiving an urgent message on the encoded subspace channel from Starfleet Command:
... - .- .-. - .. -. --. / ... .. --. -. .- .-.. / .- - - . -. - .. --- -. / . -. - . .-. .--. .-. .. ... . ---. / .-- . .----. ...- . / .--- ..- ... - / .-. . -.-. . .. ...- . -.. / .-- --- .-. -.. / - .... .- - / .- / .-. --- -- ..- .-.. .- -. / ... .... .. .--. / .... .- ... / . -. - . .-. . -.. / - .... . / -. . ..- - .-. .- .-.. / --.. --- -. . / .- -. -.. / .. ... / .... . .- -.. . -.. / ... - .-. .- .. --. .... - / ..-. --- .-. / ... - .- .-. -... .- ... . / .---- ..... .---- .-.-.- / .. -. - . .-. -.-. . .--. - / .. - / .. -- -- . -.. .. .- - . .-.. -.-- ---. / --. --- / --- ...- . .-. / - .... . / -... .-. .. -.. --. . .-.-.- / .... . .- -.. / - --- / - .... . / ..-. .. .-. ... - / -... . -. -.-. .... / --- -. / .-. .. --. .... - .-.-.- / ..-. .-. --- -- / -.-. --- .-. -. . .-. / --- ..-. / - .... . / . .- ... - / ... .. -.. . --..-- / .... . .- -.. / .---- ..--- ----- / -.. . --. .-. . . ... / ...-- ..--- / ... - . .--. ... / - --- / .- / .-.. .- .-. --. . / - .-. . . .-.-.- / - .... . / .-. --- -- ..- .-.. .- -. ... / .- .-. . / .... .. -.. .. -. --. / .- - / - .... . / -... .- ... . / --- -. / - .... . / ... --- ..- - .... / . .- ... - / ... .. -.. . .-.-.- / . -. -.. / --- ..-. / -- . ... ... .- --. . /

His presence here is a threat to the entire Federation.  You must capture the captain of the enemy ship immediately and turn the villain over to Starfleet command immediately. 

Xlmgrmfv lm kzgs fmgro blf ivzxs gsv hrtm uli qznvh nxpmrtsg kzip dvhg.  Svzw gldziwh gsrh kzip.  Uiln gsv qfmxgrlm, xlfmg vrtsgvvm xlmxivgv yolxph.  Gsv vero ilnfozm Mvil rh srwrmt yvsrmw z sziwdllw gszg szh yvvm levigzpvm yb ermvh lm gsv ovug hrwv lu gsv kzgs.

Well done, indeed!  Take a nice shore leave on Risa to reward your crew for their hard work!


A couple of usual notes - please clean the stamps and put them back in the felt bags in the boxes, rehide the boxes well after you've found them, add some extra sticks and leaves.  The Mansfield Parks Department would (I'm sure, but not asking them) appreciate if you helped keep the area clean by not littering.

The stamps range in size from 1x1.5" to 3x3" and 1.5x4". Recommended colors for marker users - black on the first, grey on the second, red and black on the third, grey and brown on the fourth, dark blue and forest green on the fifth, and black on the last.  Although several of the stamps would look nice in sparkly inks, please (please please!) do not use metallic inks on them - metallic inks leave a bit of sparkly residue even when cleaned well that makes it hard for future finders to get a good impression.

 
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If you would like to make notes, or log a find, the series is listed on AtlasQuest here and on LbNA here.

Happy Hunting!
Rogue Artist

I'm so excited!

I'm so excited!  I have my clue all typed out, all pdf'ed, all properly formatted in HTML and everything, and scheduled to post tomorrow afternoon, since I'm planting the series tomorrow morning and might not make it home right away.  Of course, then the waiting for people to find the boxes will begin, and that's the hardest part.  And I'm thinking that it might take a while. 

I'm just so excited, I'm beginning to think I might not sleep tonight.  :-) 

Happy happy day!
Rogue Artist

In the end, a good day

Well, today started off not so great.  I dragged my dear friend out of her house to do some boxing with me.  The first box we went after was no where to be found.  The second box had been eaten by animals - no bottom to the container, an eaten ziploc baggie, and no logbook or stamp to be found.  So, I took it home, not wanting to leave trash laying in the park.  Disappointing to say the least.  Oh, and I conked my head really good on an errant branch, and started bleeding. 

Although we didn't stamp into anything, my friend enjoyed our outing so much that we're going to do it again.  She has no idea what she wants as a trail name, and I'm getting to carve a sig stamp for her.  We're going to go to the Botanic Gardens next week, so I've decided to call her Bekah Boop, and I'm going to carve her a Betty Boop stamp (she's a huge fan). 

When I got home, I e-mailed the placer of the second box to let them know it's deceased condition.  Then, since I wasn't sure I did the right thing by removing the box, I e-mailed the TX letterboxing yahoo group to see if what I had done was a huge faux pas and asking if the placer was still active (the box had been planted 5 years ago after all).  I got an off-list response from someone who had done the same thing a while back, and apparently some people (no matter the decimated condition of the box) do consider it a no-no.  So, I'll be re-planting the decimated box, along with a microbox that I had that will contain an emergency replacement logbook and a note about the eaten condition of the box.  So, I'll just have to wait and see if I get griped at for all of this, but I'm chalking it all up to the learning curve.

This afternoon, I got to find places for my new series, and worked on translating my clues into my ciphers.  And I learned how to embed pdf files into the blog, so my puzzles for the clues will show up right.  And I learned how to do the new reserve a box function on AQ, so I have a box number to put on my "In case you found this by accident" cards.  And now I'm on to translating Klingon....  Oooo, this will be so much fun!!!!

So, today's lessons:

• If you bring them letterboxing, they will convert.
• Do not remove boxes from their spots, no matter how horribly they've been destroyed.  Because it apparently still counts as a find, and that's apparently important to some people.  Even if the box hasn't been logged on LbNA or AQ in over two years, this is still a no-no.  (Which sorta confuses me, because I hear all the time about people finding wet boxes and pulling them for maintenance, telling the planter, and then replanting it after fixing the box?)
• Klingon is a difficult language, and ciphers are entertaining.
• Embedding pdf files is tricky, but will be oh-so-worth-it.

Happy Trails!
Rogue Artist
(who is still nursing her head wound)

Finals are finally over!

So, I've been in school, and taking 17 credit hours.  Which has unfortunately left me with no time to letterbox.  But....as of 12:12pm today, my finals are over!  Yay!

Over the Thanksgiving holiday, we went down to Victoria to visit my sister.  My step-mom and I attempted to find the one box in the county on LbNA that doesn't have a note about pulled for maintenance or whatnot in the clues.  Alas, we found the right spot (I'm sure of it), and it was no longer there.  We found a plastic ziploc that was pretty decimated, so I believe it's safe to say that it's been gone for a while.  We fought I don't even know how many thorny vines that had grown up around the hiding spot.  Proving once again, that no matter how far I travel, the Thorny Vine Mafia is still out to get me.

I carved a new stamp from an eraser, with every intent on planting it while we were there, at the park we had fought the thorny vines at.  Never got around to it, and we were in a bit of rush on Sunday on the way out of town.  So, it's sitting in my bag, waiting for later this month when we visit again.  My sister showed me a neat place downtown that is close to where she works that she thought might make a good spot - I took a couple photos so I could carve something appropriate for the area.  So, I might be planting 2 boxes when we go down there in a week.  And my sister has been so kind as to offer to check on the boxes every so often - very kind indeed considering she's not a boxer.

Now, there was a reason we were so rushed on our way out of town.  The Texas Tour Bus had been hidden in a town known for it's chicken and sausage.  I made a deal with the hubby that if we took a different route home, so that we could stop at Lockhart State Park, he wouldn't be forced to stop for the five boxes on our usual route.  Lockhart is known for it's barbeque chicken and sausage, and it has a state park with a golf course (hey, the clue said something about flags!).  So, we went.  And the park ranger wouldn't let us on the golf course.  And my DH kept insisting that no one would put the Tour Bus on a golf course (the voice of reason that one is!).  And I was so intent on finding the Bus that I wouldn't listen, and we spent the next hour on trails trying to find a way onto the golf course. 

Finally, I gave up, and sent a message to the keeper of the box that I couldn't get to it.  And lo and behold....

We were at the wrong park.

So, now I must patiently wait for it to resurface.  And now that classes are over, as long as it's in the next week or two, I'll be able to hop in the car and be part of the usual mad scramble for it as soon as it shows back up!

In celebration of the semester ending, I went boxing this afternoon.  It was a bit chilly, but I didn't really care, I've missed it so very very much.  I had a couple of errands to run in Fort Worth, so I printed out a couple of clues that were on my way there, and I was off! 

First, I headed after Kantexan's Jazz Quartet: Drumset at Deaver Park in Arlington.  Some of the clues were a bit tricky - it was planted some time ago, and hadn't been logged in a while, so I wasn't sure if it was still there.  There's only one set of bleachers now, so I had to figure out where exactly would bleachers have been.  And there were two tiny trails, which was a bit confusing.  But, I finally found the multi-trunked tree, and there it was!  Laying out in camo-taped glory for all to see.  Oh my, What a rush!  What a thrill!  You could feel the excitement in the air!  Quickly followed by the frustration of the tin being rusted shut.  Fortunately, after some finagling with one of my key-chains, I was able to pry it open.  There was a bit of moisture in the tin, which I dried out.  The logbook had gotten wet at some point, but was dry now, so I proceeded with stamping in.  I cleaned up the rusted edges as best I could, and hid it in the manner that the clue said it was hidden in.  An absolutely lovely Drumset stamp now lives in a beautiful brick red shade in my logbook.

Next, it was off to find the next of the series, Jazz Quartet: Bass Guitar just down the road at the Cliff Nelson Rec Center & Park.  It was a lovely jaunt along the gully amongst the fallen leaves.  The smell of the recent drizzles hung in the air, and the sound of the fallen leaves under my feet put a smile on my face that not even the cold winds could wipe away.  A mom with her adorable little son and a black lab were walking along the sidewalk, and the little one decided he wanted to come check out the gully.  Fortunately, my logbook is a hardbound sketchbook, so I just pulled out my markers (which I still haven't figured out how to use very well) and pretended to be an art student drawing the trees.  Worked well enough, and the mom told the kid to stay out of the creek bed, so they didn't bother coming to see what I was doing.  Again, the box was right where it was supposed to be!  This one wasn't even rusted shut!  Woohoo!  The fabulous Bass Guitar now resides in an appropriately fabulous blue shade in my book.

Unfortunately, time ran short and I had to stop boxing for the day.  I did have errands to run before the kiddo arrived home from school after all.  Agent X actually managed to make it home 10 minutes before me - good thing he has a key! 

I'm looking forward to more boxing tomorrow...  probably the two boxes I printed off today that I didn't get to.  Or, maybe, even better - yes, definitely now! - I'll go plant my 6 box series that I've been holding onto.  I mentioned it in my last post - it's all based on Star Trek, and I think it's a pretty clever clue, if I do say so myself.  I will give you the hint (now that I'm sure it'll get planted within the next couple days!) - each box in the series that uses a cipher (not all do) has a different cipher.  I will say, I'm hoping that the whole clue will take people about an hour or so to figure out.  And, I think I'll have to post it all on the blog here, since several parts of the clue are going to be picture files.  I guess we'll see tomorrow or Monday, won't we?

So, we come to the conclusion of another post, which means it's time for today's Lessons in Letterboxing!

• Boxes might not always be where they should be, but it's fun figuring it all out anyway.  I might not get the stamp, but it's awfully satisfying to know that I can determine exactly where Disc-golf basket #3 used to be.
  
• The hubby is not so thrilled when I make us go two hours out of the way to the wrong park.  So I doubt that I'll be able to convince him to stop for boxes again for a good long while.  :-(
• Clever clues take a ton of work.  I think they're worth it - I mean, I did spend a good 10 hours carving those six stamps, it's perfectly fine for me to require some work to be put into actually getting to find them!
• The middle of the day on a cold day is the perfect time to box around here!  Everyone who goes to the park to each their lunches is staying in their cars, and not in my way and snooping around!  
• I've determined that the TVM is everywhere, and they are all out to get me.  Little do they know that I've figured this out, and now I'm actually paying attention to where those pesky vines are before they stab me in the eye.  

Happy trails!
Rogue Artist

Ah, it was a lovely weekend indeed - despite the rains.

Rastaman took me out for date night on Friday (yay!), and we had time to kill between dinner and the movie, so he was kind enough to offer going to Micheal's with me so that I could pick up pretty papers for logbook covers.  I had promised ahead of time that I would only purchase papers, so when he saw that I was really wanting a hole punch, a paper piercer and an eyelet tool, he threw them in the basket so that he could purchase them for me and I could keep my promise... Now if only we'd thought to actually get some eyelets to go with the eyelet tool, I'd be able to play with it.  Oh, well - it's a good excuse to go back and use my 40% off coupon next week.

Agent X wasn't home this weekend, so Rastaman agreed to go boxing with me on Saturday.  The skies were clear and blue, and it looked like the perfect day for boxing.  We headed back to the Botanic Gardens in Fort Worth.  The plan was to get the new Nordic Mythology series by Breath of Life, and then to get a couple others that we didn't get last time.  One of which requires a compass, so it was going to be my hands-on tutorial on how to use that thing (Rastaman was in the military and knows all about compasses and degrees - I just know how to use it to figure out the general direction I'm headed).

We found the first box - Yggdrasil - right off the bat.  Last month's adventures in the Gardens really helped us out with this - I knew ahead of time the general area we were headed, so we were able to park and get to the boxing right away.   The stamp was gorgeous - I'm always impressed with Breath of Life's stamps - they are always so pretty. 

After getting sort of confused and mixed up, we finally got on the right path to get the second box - Loki.  We found it, and after some muggles passed by, we were able to retrieve it.  I was SO excited when I opened the box and found a hitchhiker!  It was a great little stamp of the Sorting Hat from Harry Potter.  Rastaman was all kinds of confused - he seems to only box because it makes me happy, and he really has no interest in these things, so he didn't know why I was getting all excited.  Now that I've seen a hitchhiker in real life, I'm seriously considering making some of my itty-bitty stamps that I've done recently into hitchhikers.  We diligently stamped everything where it needed to be, and proceeded on to find Odin.

And wouldn't you know it?  It started sprinkling rain.  We hurried to the log where Odin was hiding, and that darned Thorny Vine Mafia has apparently grown to include vines in Fort Worth too - that's what I get for looking at the wrong end of the log.  Rastaman was obviously thinking more clearly than I, for he did not venture into the thorny vines to find the box, and he found it as soon as he started looking.  It was also a very lovely stamp, in a very lovely area of the Gardens we hadn't seen before.  However, Rastaman insisted that we consider heading home before the weather got worse.

We dropped the hitchhiker off at another box that was on our way back to the car, and started home.  Good thing too - it started pouring before we even got out of the Gardens, and I didn't have any rain gear with me, or anything to protect logbooks from getting wet.  I'll have to make sure to pack something for that next time.

After we got home, I spent the rest of the day making all of my logbooks for the new series of boxes, and felt pouches for all the stamps to be planted.  And I even got a chance to mount the stamps on some foam!  However, I've now realized that I should not have ordered black foam for stamp mounting - I must now procure a paint pen in order to mark "UP -->" on the back of the stamps.

(Now, a confession of my geekiness - my entire family, son, husband and sister included - are members of Starfleet, the Star Trek fan association.  We're part of a starship, the USS Joan of Arc,  and everything.)  I also got a chance to briefly talk to my sister this weekend.  I told her all about the series that we'll be planting soon, and she informed me that since it's all about Star Trek, I can get promotion points for it.  (The fact that this is exciting to me just helps prove exactly how much of a geek I am.)  So, I'll be sending pictures of the completed boxes, the clues and stamp images into our ship's Communications Officer for inclusion into our newsletter (with huge spoiler disclaimers - none of them are letterboxers, but I certainly don't want the stamp images to get out to boxers and ruin the fun). 

So, with that being said, I've asked for suggestions on creative clue making from the CCCP on Atlas Quest - and they had such wonderful ideas!  I've decided that it'll be a story with puzzles to solve along the way to actually find the boxes.  I just hope that when the series finally gets launched, everyone else will have as much fun with the puzzles as I am having making them.

So, this week's Lessons Learned Letterboxing...

• I really need rain gear so that we can find boxes in the rain without worrying about logbooks getting wet.  At this rate, I'll be lugging around a huge suitcase of gear everytime I go boxing.
• Black foam isn't such a great thing, even though it looks cool.  My brain apparently disengaged when I ordered it.
• Rastaman is quite content boxing with me because he wants me to continue to be interested in it and not lose my enthusiasm for it.  He apparently thinks that if I don't have someone to box with, I won't box.  I'm not sure that's true, but he usually has me figured out pretty well, so maybe it is.  At least he likes the spending time with his wife part of it.
• The Thorny Vine Mafia is everywhere, and they are all out to get me.
• Hitchhikers are even more adorable in person than I would have thought.
• Creating creative clues is a lot more time-consuming than straight-forward clues, but also much more rewarding and satisfying.

Happy Boxing and cool sunshiney days!
Rogue Artist

Suddenly, I'm up to my ears in stamps!

Ah, what a last 4 days this has been!

Agent X and I went to the Middle Earth Birthday Bash in Denton on Saturday.  Other than Agent X getting bored and frustrated with all the talking (because it meant we weren't finding boxes) - it was a great time.  Breath of Life and Trillion Grams hosted one heck of an event!  I was excited to meet the infamous Puddle Splasher - who's Artist Series at the Botanical Gardens was our last boxing outing - and The Fantastic Four - who planted a box here in Mansfield shortly after the Tyler meet.  It was fabulous getting to see Gryphon, Beach Bum and everyone else again.  Grizzled Gryphon even inquired as to the state of our boxes (which he found earlier this month) after all the awful rains we've had lately.  And - we had newbies!  Captain Lola, Juice Box, and their adorable son Bloo (who Agent X was thrilled to take over to the playground).

We found the wonderful Middle-Earth themed boxes that Breath of Life and Trillion Grams were kind enough to plant in the park for the event.  Agent X and I were super excited to discover that we were first finders on three on them - very exciting, since that's never happened before.  Even though, I must say - I certainly missed getting to see everyone else's sig stamps in the book.  We even got to sit under a bridge stamping in, with walkers and cyclists going over us, not even knowing we were there.  I felt like a troll, ready to pop out and demand the bridge-crossing toll.

Sunday was super-busy - we got home from church and Agent X went out to play.  And shortly after that, he came back in.  I said to myself - "Now, that's odd.  He has a good 45 minutes before curfew."  Complaining of a sore throat, I check to see if it's strep - nope, no white spots on the tonsils.  I take his temperature - 102.1!  "Oh my!  No school for either of us tomorrow!"  Cue Tylenol, chicken noodle soup, big blankets and 7-Up.

So, what's a mom who wishes she were in class to do with herself while supervising a sick child who refuses to fall asleep and keeps arguing the whole "no-video-games-if-you're-home-sick-from-school" rule?  She carves stamps while watching cartoons with the kiddo!  Star Wars Clone Wars came on, and so he asked me to carve him a stamp of a Storm Trooper Blaster Gun - look for it as a personal traveler or alternative sig stamp soon!

His fever was still sort of high Monday night, so I kept him home today too.  He didn't get up until 11, and by then his fever was completely gone!  Yay!  So, he got cleaned up, ate some real food, and we set off for the park.  We needed to check on our boxes - something I've been needing to do since the storms came through, but never have time for (17 credit hours is a lot more than I thought it was - we pretty much hadn't been boxing since school started).  The playground is almost finished, but not quite, so he couldn't play.

Now, for some background for non-Metroplex readers, assuming I actually have any.  The second weekend in September, the rains began.  And it rained, and it rained, and it rained.  I don't remember exactly how long it rained, but it was several days, then we had a day of sun, and then it rained for several more days.  Agent X and I planted our first box (By Any Other Name...) along a creek in our town, along with a bonus box (Walnut Creek) a bit further up the creek.  The rains were so much that one of the main streets in our town, (which runs right along the edge of the park we planted in, and has a bridge over the creek we planted next to) was closed due to high water.  Now, back to my story....

We found the nature overlook near where the first box was. Trees are downed everywhere.  The trail we used when we planted is non-existent.  Up in the trees, well over where I could reach, you could see debris from how high the water level actually got.  Agent X donned the gloves we had brought, and searched through debris, but it was in vain.  By Any Other Name... had floated away.  We broke out the trash bag and started collecting trash on our way to where the bonus box had been.  Treacherous without the trail.  We found the tree that we had planted the planter's pouch at.  No pouch - Walnut Creek floated down the creek as well.  Despondent, I just wanted to go home and eat ice cream to console myself.  But Agent X had other plans.  He takes the environment seriously (yay! I did something right!) - and he insisted on continuing picking up trash.  He found a 5 gallon pail (who even brings a huge bucket into the woods?), and proceeded to completely fill it while he was digging around in the hopes that our pouch was still nearby.

We got back to the car, and decided we needed to go play at a playground to cheer ourselves up.  So, we went to Town Park, and checked on Fantastic Four's Gristmill.  And, boy!  I am so glad we did - it was out in plain sight!  Agent X did an excellent job of rehiding it properly - and did a really good job of keeping the box out of sight when a woman happened upon us and inquired as to what we were doing.  Fortunately, Agent X is my son, so she didn't press the question and assumed that he just really needed to relieve himself behind the tree.

So, with that, still sadden by the loss of our boxes, we went home.  We pulled in the driveway, and I was almost in tears.  Agent X, with a huge smile and big bright eyes, took my hand and said, "Don't worry Mama, we'll just plant all the stamps you carved yesterday!  That's way more boxes than what we lost!"

And, I hate to admit it, but he's right.  We'll just have to plant the stamps I've been carving.  So, y'all can expect a nice 6(ish) box series with a fabulous sci-fi theme planted in Mansfield sometime soon.  :-)

So, without further ado, here are today's Lessons in Letterboxing...

• I really must put together a list of must-haves for events.  I not only forgot the white cake at home (which necessitated an emergency run for brownie bites as soon as we got to Denton), I forgot the camera!  Again!
• Although we were smart in planting boxes up past where we thought the creek bank was (yay us for thinking ahead!), I'm really thinking that we won't plant that close to the creek again.  
• The magnifying lamp and a pair of tweezers really should be considered must-have carving tools.  With all the carving I've done in the last two days, I really don't think that I could have pulled off some of those fine lines without them.
• Perpetual optimism and a sunny attitude are apparently must-haves for planters - as my not-so-little-one has taught me.

And that pretty much wraps up this post.

Happy Trails!
Rogue Artist

Happy Day!

It's only lunchtime, and it's such a very happy day already.  Agent X made it safely to the bus stop, and despite me being nervous about him riding the bus (granted, he's 10, going into 6th grade, but he's never once ridden the school bus to school before), I was good and let him go and then went and hid behind a bush down the street to make sure he got on safely.  He didn't want me hanging out until the bus came - I'm thinking having your mom stand there waiting for the bus with you is probably still uncool - it was when I was in school.

Now, it's been a good 10 years since I went to school full-time, and this whole thing has been super intimidating and exciting all at once.  I got back to the house, and I was a nervous train wreck getting myself ready for my first day back to school.  So, I sat down and carved a stamp with a back to school theme.  Not sure what I'll do with it yet - maybe it would make a good hitchhiker?

This morning's classes were good - other than being the oldest student in the government class by a good 10 years (I was quite relieved to see several other older students in my English class!).  Called the hubby after class to let him know how things were going, and he let me know that I had a package waiting for me.  Very relieved I was - thinking it was the last textbook I need for this afternoon's class.  But it wasn't.  It was something a thousand times better...

My package from Stampeaz came!  I have 7 whole sheets of brand new never touched carving material!  I can just see myself now - every time the homework assignments get overwhelming, I'll swivel my chair around to the craft table and carve a stamp.  Which I won't have anything planned for, but that's just fine.

Maybe I could get into LTCs.... hmmm....
I can hear my husband crying at all of my craft purchases now.

RA

At the Gardens

Let start the story not with today, but rather yesterday, shortly after my last post...

Rastaman got home from a very long day at work, and was exhausted after a bad day.  He didn't want to cook.  I didn't want to cook.  He wanted to hole up in the bedroom with some pizza and beer and watch the Cowboys play their first game in the new stadium.  I (as always), wanted family time before everyone went to their respective electronics devices.

So, without me saying a thing, Rastaman suggested a compromise - if you let me watch the game, I'll go boxing with the two of you tomorrow.  Deal!  One shopping trip and a frozen lasagna later, I was searching for local boxes that would make for a good first boxing trip for Rastaman.

After much searching, and hemming and hawing, and wavering on where I wanted to go, I finally settled on the Artists Series at the Fort Worth Botanic Gardens.  I discovered several boxes that we could hunt for while we were there.  Bright and early (ok, really more like noon-ish; a girl has to have sufficient coffee ya know!) we were off!

First, we went for Vincent's Sunflowers - the first in the Artist Series by Puddle Splasher.  After some of the usual drama from our clue-bearer, we worked everything out so we were all in a good mood again.  Alas, I apparently am no good at huffing, so the new brush markers we bought (and were hoping to use today) kept drying before I finished inking the stamp.  We finally settled on using three of our new Cat's Eye ink pads in a lovely palette of blues and browns, and got a very nice image from it.  Rastaman had the honor of stamping Vincent's Sunflowers into our logbook, and he was even afforded the privilege of replacing the box in it's hiding spot.

Next on the list was Monet's Water Lilies, the second in the Artist Series.  Agent X had a wonderful time leading us through the rose gardens, and we took pictures near an enormous pecan tree we saw along the way. 

 

 

The box was found straight away, but it took some time to stamp in because there were little children "rescuing" minnows from a defunct fountain to put them in a creek (seriously, I think the minnows had to all have been dead before the creek, quite sad really).  We attempted the markers once again, since this stamp had less surface area.  Worked well enough, but I'm still pretty certain that I need someone else to show me what the heck I'm doing wrong.  Something to discuss at the Denton event I suppose!

As we sat there enjoying the scenery after stamping in, we soon realized that one of the other clues I printed out had a similar landmark listed in it.  So, the O'Keefe's Red Poppy had to wait while we searched for The Garden Gnome.  It had been rumored to be missing, but after re-reading the clue several times, we realized what we had been missing (sorta sad, considering it was at the very beginning of the clue!), and we found the gnome!   Joy and mirth abounded, since we were just about to give up on it!  Absolutely adorable stamp!  I attempted the markers once again, with a bit of success.  Decided to ink the little fella up in black to get a good image, and it ended up sticking to the page and peeling parts of the page away with it.  I've always heard the gnomes like to be given presents, so I suppose the pieces of paper were our present to it.  Gave the little fella a nice bath, and returned him to his home.

Off to find O'Keefe's Red Poppy, the last of the Artist Series.  We thoroughly enjoyed the turtles in the pond we walked past - got some nice pictures of one eating what I think must have been cat food. 

Rastaman got to play look-out while we stamped in.  Definitely my favorite stamp of the series - all of them were truly amazing, but my mom is a big O'Keefe fan, and for quite some time, we had a Red Poppy print hanging in the kitchen when I was younger, so the piece holds a special place in my heart.

A Picnic Basket was next on the list - first though, Agent X had to run back to the very first bench we sat on, since his mini-compass had apparently been left there by accident.  Fortunately, it was still there, and we were off on our next hunt.  The Picnic Basket was a lovely carve also - at first, Agent X thought it was a turtle because there was a greenish blue tinge to it; he figured out what it was once he saw the stamped image.

Off we went to the car, since we were all hot, hungry and getting tired.  Until I read some more of the clues and realized we had parked near two other boxes.  We visited the POW-MIA memorial, and then the Charlie Company memorial.  They were very moving tributes to some of the fine people who our country has lost in battle.  Rastaman was Airborne when he was in the Army, so he had to give a loud HOO-HAH when he saw the Charlie Company memorial with the Airborne symbol.

We somehow managed to find Jake and Elwood despite the rudimentary compass we had in our possession.  Gorgeous tribute to the Blues Brothers!

Went Squirrel hunting.  Alas, I believe it has been muggled - but man, what a great spot it was!

Hungry and tired, and awfully close to the car, we decided we had to call it a day.  Creepy Texas Critters and Ornette Coleman would have to wait for another day (hey, it's excuse to go back to the botanic gardens!).

 All in all - today was a fabulous day of boxing!

So, today's lessons in letterboxing are:

• In well kept Botanic Gardens, the thorny vines can't catch me. HA!  Take that thorny vine mafia!
  
• We really need a good compass that we can take degree readings on, so that we can find boxes easier than just knowing the general direction we're supposed to go.  I should have taken the hint when I saw the compass icon on the listings, and we did manage to find the box, but not until we had been looking in the wrong place for a good hunk of time.
• The new setup I have for our boxing bag is working great - and whoever said on the AQ message boards that you could wrap camo duct tape around an old gift card, really knew what they were talking about!  Brilliant!
• I really need to carve a new mini sig stamp for myself - the first one I ever carved was out of an eraser, and it's not holding up too well.  Hadn't realized it until today, since I usually use the larger one, but we were trying to get all three stamps to fit on one page, and a 2"x2" stamp is just too big to fit other stamps on the same page.  At least I have more carving materials on the way, and it'll be a good trial for the new magnifying lamp.
  

Happy Boxing!
RA

A boxing kinda week

Last Friday was my last day at my job; I resigned so I could go back to school full time. School starts on the 24th, which means that I have had an entire week off with nothing I was committed to do.

So, I started my mini-vacay off with very high hopes. I printed out 12 box clues, with every intent that Agent X and I could go hunting for two or three a day between errands and housework. I was super excited that FantasicFour planted a box here in Mansfield, so I had something close to go hunt for.

I had an all-day church teacher training event in Dallas on Saturday. We brought along the boxing bag, which had everything in it (both for us to go boxing and us to make boxes and stamps). I was thrilled to pieces that we got there with no mishaps (previous trips to Dallas have put me in tears getting lost and expecting tickets in the mail for getting on the tollway without paying). In the end though, Rastaman had to come save us. We got out of training to discover that the parking garage I had parked in was locked up tighter than a drum. With the boxing stuff in the car. There went the idea of boxing on the way home! It turned out ok - Agent X and I enjoyed a nice pair of Frappuccinos at Starbucks while waiting for my knight in shining armor. And we ended up getting to spend all of Monday with Rastaman, since he had to take the day off so we could retrieve my car. So there was no boxing at all over the weekend, despite the best intentions to do so.

A friend of mine came over Tuesday, a very fabulous crafty woman like myself. Her son and Agent X played, and we caught up with each other. I told her all about letterboxing, and she expressed such interest (they're about to start homeschooling, and her husband had already expressed an interest in boxing when we talked Saturday). So excited I was to have a rapt audience to my newly found crafting skills that I carved a ladybug stamp while she was watching to see how it's done, and we ended up making logbooks together.

Agent X and I had a very rough start to the week - he's 10 and starting to try to act like a teenager, all moody and stubborn. We had a huge fight Tuesday after our company went home. Rastaman came home from the store to Agent X having been sent to his room and me not doing a very good job of calming down outside. But Rastaman has a way of bringing people back together and finding common ground, and he offered to make dinner while Agent X and I went looking for the new box in town (with the hopes that we'd make up while doing so).

We actually managed to make up before we even got out to the driveway - boxing just lifts our spirits so much that we both quickly forgot our anger and were quick to forgive each other.

The Gristmill in Mansfield was fabulous. It's at a park that we drive past all the time, but had never actually stopped at. We saw some really cool spider webs (with a zigzag pattern in the web; I can't remember what type of spider makes those), some neat feathers, and lots of dragonflies. I do so love dragonfly season.

Agent X made short work of retrieval, and we went a bit further down trail to find a place to sit and stamp in. There ended up being several joggers and bikers, and we had to think quickly when we saw them coming. As one passed us, with our boxing bag in my lap and the box hidden in it, I asked Agent X if he wanted goldfish or cherrios for his snack. Of course, I don't carry either, it was the only thing I could think of at the time - inks sprawled out behind us, logbooks precariously balanced on my knee, LTCs falling out onto the ground. Agent X gamely played along, asking for the goldfish. After the jogger passed and turned the curve, Agent X burst out in laughter at how fun that was! So I think we've established our new cover for sitting on the side of the trail. One of these days, I might even pack some goldfish for real.

The Gristmill stamp was quite lovely, we managed to get it safely back to it's hiding spot, and Agent X had a blast at the playground before heading home. All in all, the perfect way for a mom and her son to make up.

Wednesday, we went to another park in Mansfield, to scout locations for our first plant. We had a blast - Agent X played on the playground while I sat there and wrote out our clue. Once we got home from running errands, I finished putting together the box, figured out the whole planter's pouch thing, took bunches of pictures that I still haven't bothered getting downloaded off the camera, and jumped for joy that we were finally ready to plant.

Ooo! Look at the pretty planter's pouch I made!

I really think that Rastaman still thinks me a tad off my rocker for this whole thing, but he's been taking it all in stride and seems generally happy with it, I think because it makes me happy. I'm really starting to think that I'll only get him to go boxing with me at events and on the rare occasion that Agent X isn't home. I think there's something about going hiking with a stubborn 10 year old who's moody that is making it hard for Rastaman to want to do all of this (and really, who can blame him? There are times that I really re-think the whole Agent X boxing with me thing.)

Thursday, Agent X had a job to do, so off we went so he could make some money. We ended up having lunch with Rastaman, which was very nice. We went after a box in Red Kane park, which we are now pretty certain is no longer there. In fact, LbNA has the box title revised to have *missing* at the end - I think maybe I need to start double checking both LbNA's listing and the AtlasQuest listing for that. I'm fine with not finding boxes when they're not there anymore, or have been muggled, or when I read the clues wrong. I'm one of those who enjoys boxing for the journey it takes me on - the stamp at the end is the icing on the cake for me. Now, that being said - icing is my favorite part of any cake.

We went shopping - got some new inks, some brush markers to try out, and a spiffy lighted magnifying glass to help me with stamp carving. And after we got home, I ordered some more carving medium from Webfoot over at Stampeaz. I'm thrilled to pieces because I've already gotten confirmation that it's shipped, so I can allow myself to use the last of my pink stuff!

Then, we went and planted our box at Rose Park. It was tons of fun. After getting home and launching the clues on AtlasQuest, I spent all night checking to see how many hits the clue had. I can't wait for someone to find it and give us some feedback. So, if you're in the area, and feel the need to hunt a box, check out our very first plant ever - By Any Other Name... .

So this week's lessons in letterboxing are:

• Boxing is the perfect way to make up with a moody 10 year old.
• Those thorny vines are out to get me! Even with Agent X pointing them out along the trails this week, I still managed to get pierced on the forearm during planting.
• Playgrounds are fun, but it should be established before even getting out of the car that boxing happens first, then the playground. The last thing I want for Agent X to wear himself out on the playground so much that he gripes the whole way to the box.
• Do not store all of the letterboxing supplies in a single bag that gets locked up with your car in a parking garage. I had withdrawals all weekend not being able to carve or make logbooks or go boxing.
• Rastaman will eventually come around to the dark side. It just has to be a quiet, un-moody dark side.
• Did I mention that the thorny vines are out to get me? Seriously, I think that Pantego's thorny vines must have called up the Mansfield thorny vines and had a nice chat about me. I imagine it something like this:

PTV: Hey, did you hear that Rogue Artist moved down your way?
MTV: Naw! You're kidding me!
PTV: Yep. And we didn't get our pound of flesh and gallon of blood from her yet, so you're going to have to finish the job.
MTV: We can do that. What's she look like?
PTV: She's 5' 6" with brown hair and a very talkative son. But the son's not on the hitlist, so don't mess with him; he's in good with all the woodland creatures, talks nice to them and tries to feed them or something.
MTV: Cool, cool. We'll get her for you next time she comes around. We'll teach her for going into the woods without a long-sleeve shirt on!
PTV: Yeah! She'll learn to regret outdoor activity during Texas summers one way or another.
(insert evil "Muhahahah!" laugh on both sides here)

See?! They really are out to get me! It's not all in my head, I swear it!

Happy Boxing and Distinct Landmarks!
Rogue Artist

(edited on 8/22 to add the pictures after I finally got them off the camera!)

Mini-meet in Tyler

So, we moved last month. And all my letterboxing stuff has been packed up, and I haven't been LBing in quite some time.

That being said, I've been really looking forward to the mini-meet in Tyler. But, gosh, I was nervous - what if people aren't nearly as nice as they seem in their e-mails?, what if no one talks to be because I'm a newbie? is the kiddo going to get on my nerves? So, I arranged for my step-mom, RosebudTia, to go with me. And last night, at the very last minute, she called saying she wasn't going to be able to make it after all. I was crushed - my super-safety conscious husband was already nervous about me driving several hours to meet a bunch of strangers (a good point, which I share).

And he looked at my forlorn face, after seeing me work so hard on the answers to personal travelers, and how excited I had been not 10 minutes before as I was getting ready to make my potluck contribution. And he said he'd go with me. YAY!

Didn't get my potluck contribution made (what was I thinking, deciding to make a dish that takes over a hour for 4 servings as a potluck offering?), we left an hour later than we planned, I completely forgot to grab several of the things I meant to bring. 2 1/2 hours later, we pull into this really pretty park, and find all the cars. I'm a nervous, excited wreck. Not even sure we're in the right place, we get up to the pavilion, and I see stamps! We're in the right place!

AndPlus2, who was the fabulous hostess for the event, was the first person I got to meet. And she was just as sweet as pie! She patiently explained everything I needed to do (stamp into the event book, stamp the event stamp into my book, do the traveling event boxes that were there, start exchanges and PTs if I had answers for them, etc.). The event stamp was amazing! The event book was amazing! The traveling boxes were so neat and clever!

I got to meet so many wonderful people - Beach Bum TX, jb kokopelli, Gryzzled Gryphon, Frost Maiden, Blue Butterfly, Lucy Locket, Purple Nic, Breath of Life, Trillion Grams, Mothers Love... The Rodgers 7 were there, but I just missed them on a trip to the car for something.

Agent X was thoroughly entertained by the whole thing - there was food, there was a dog (and gosh, he does love animals), there were other kids, and of course, there was letterboxing!

The fabulous hubby wore one of his favorite shirts that he got on a trip a while back. Shortly after we got there (and he was reassured he'd still be allowed to eat despite not being a boxer), one of the boxers I was exchanging with told him that the logo would be a great stamp, and everyone around the table agreed. After getting home tonight, it did indeed get carved so that he would have a stamp should he attend an event with me again, or in the event that he decides to start boxing with me (keeping fingers crossed!).

I caught my first cootie - it's traveled all the way from Tennessee! Looking through the book that was with it, I recognize several of the stamps. And I am absolutely in awe that I have in my possession (for now) that so many letterboxers have stamped into. I was so very excited to see SHH's stamp in there - I love her blog, and hope to someday be half the stamp carver that she is.

On to today's lessons learned in letterboxing - unfortunately not nearly as humorous as previous lessons, but I wanted to get them down before I completely forgot them:

1. Agent X apparently has a knack for ciphers. I took one look at it and thought to myself "obviously not going to get that one". A bit later, I did manage to figure out the title, but that was as far as I got. He took one look at what I had gleaned, and in less than a minute, he'd figured out what to do to translate the clue. Maybe all those puzzle boxes that I thought I'd never get might just be within reach if I print the clues out for him to figure out.
2. Everyone really is just as nice as they seem in their e-mails. And then some.
3. Double check the event start time - I coulda sworn it said 11:30, we left a hour late, and arrived about 12:15. It actually started at 8. I so could have actually gotten some of the boxes around Tyler if we'd gotten there then! Of course, that would require much more coffee in the morning....
4. Planning to make a potluck offering the night before the event, which regularly takes over a hour of prep and cooking time for only 4 servings, for up to 35 people = bad idea in reality, no matter how good it sounds in your head or how good it sounds to your stomach.
5. Print everything ahead of time! This morning, in the rush to get out the door, we discovered that the desktop computer that the printer will talk to - not working. Hand wrote all the directions and PT answers I had, and that worked well. But it did not lend to me becoming calm in a pre-caffeinated state about how late we were already.
6. Pack everything the night before - the letterboxing stuff, the camera, a book to entertain the 10 year old in the back seat so they don't kill your phone battery playing games because it's the only thing that will stop the never-ending conversation about video games you've never played nor care to play.
7. Agent X really needs a logbook. Didn't have enough loose index cards with us, and that's what he's been using. So I'm going to make copies of the event's pages from my book, and we'll paste them into his when I manage to procure it.
8. Apparently, my carving skills must be better than I thought, because I got compliments on our stamps. Which, I admit I worked hard on, but not that hard, and I really thought they weren't all that great. I was in absolute awe of a lot of the stamps I saw today, and I hope to one day be that skilled, but at least I now know that I'm not the worst out there. I'll take it.
9. The town I moved to, which isn't far from where we were, needs letterboxes. So if I plant it, they will come, right? I got lots of encouragement from several of the boxers there that I'm prepared enough to plant one - didn't want to plant until I'd found several boxes, so I knew what I thought made for a good one, had an idea of how it was done, etc...

So, I'll be planting one in my town in the next week or two. Already have an idea of where I want to put it (we have a really nice park not too far from here). Just have to go get a box and some camo tape and make a little logbook for it. And write a clue. Very exciting! Can't wait!

I'll be starting back to college in two weeks, and I have a full week off between my job ending and school starting. So, Agent X and I are going to get in as much boxing as we can. Hopefully, we'll get a nice early start so that we can be back home in air conditioning by the heat of the day. Either way, I'll be boxing more now that we're settled into the new place, and I'm just super-thrilled about that!

More boxing - it's what every letterboxer dreams of, right? :-)

Four-legged Friend Series

After all these years of living in Arlington, I have actually never gone to River Legacy. For that matter, I haven't been to most of the parks in our city - letterboxing has now given me a reason to get out of the house and out into nature.

After last week's mini-adventure, my son has been bit by the boxing bug just as much as I have. Also, I had asked my folks down south if they had ever been boxing, and if there were any really awesome boxes we absolutely must find next time we're down there. They had never heard of it, so they did some research, and have now been bit too. :)

For Agent X, getting to go was a reward for good behavior this week. At first, he didn't want to get up this morning - Saturday is our usual sleeping in day. But as soon as I said, "So, what happened to going letterboxing this morning?", he hopped right up. I gave him the choice of looking for Guasco, or going to River Legacy and finding Haunted by Waters and Cowboy, or the Four-legged Friends Series.

Since I just carved his sig stamp the other night, he was anxious to get to use it on his very first find. Since several of the choices were listed on AQ as unknown, he decided that he wanted to go to River Legacy, so that we had a better chance of finding at least one that he could stamp into.

Once we settled on going to River Legacy for our hunt, I set about writing all the clues down - for the series, Haunted by Waters and Cowboy. And, Agent X started getting impatient, so I set him to getting together all of the supplies we were going to need. Even though I told him to pack 4 bottles of water, he had the wonderful foresight to pack 6.

We got a very late start - 11ish is already getting pretty hot in Texas at this time of year. On our drive to the park, we decided to go after the series and then if we still had energy afterward, get the others on our way back home.

We got to the park and set off on the trail. It was a beautiful walk. Nice and shady. There were several little well-beaten trails off of the main trail that led off into really nice little areas. Some had benches, some had really pretty dragonflies, some had absolutely gorgeous views of the river.

The kiddo did a great job while we were on the trail. He pointed out several really cool spiderwebs, and a lot of dragonflies. He figured out which plant kept leaving little sticker seed-pods on our jeans. He had a cool butterfly land on his leg while we were stamping into one of the boxes. He did a great job as a look-out, and I think that his uber-friendly Hello's to everyone we saw actually worked well to have people not think twice about why we were sitting on the side of the trail.

At one point, he was looking behind a tree for a box, and leaned on the tree since I had warned of oncoming noxers. Part of the tree promptly fell off into his hand, revealing a mass of termites underneath, and he ran out back onto the trail with a speed I've rarely seen in my child. The oncoming noxers of course had heard his "AAAACCCKKK!!!!", and they had a nice chuckle with us about it.

On our way back to the car, we found a really cool turtle sitting on a retaining wall. We sat and watched it for a while. Agent X figured out that every time we moved quickly, it would pull it's head in further because he was getting scared. During the rest of our walk back, he made sure to warn every person we met about the turtle and asked nicely for them to not scare the turtle. It was really cute.

We had such a great time. We only found three of the seven in the series, but it was such a beautiful walk that the kiddo didn't even care we didn't find them all. He was just thrilled that we had found any of them. We were so exhausted by the time we got back to the car that we decided to go home for the day. Two and a half hours in the Texas mid-day heat is about all I can take nowadays.

So here's the summary of today's lessons learned in letterboxing:

• More water is good.
• I have to remember to actually pack an extra bag just for trash; we MUST encourage Agent X's desire to better the trail by picking up litter.
• Bug spray should never be forgotten. There were way too many mosquitos feasting on my arms today.
• Although it's smart to keep all the letterboxing related stuff together at home, it's even smarter to have the stamps, ink and logbooks easily accessible in the pack. I got awfully tired of opening up the whole thing by the time we reached the second box. Moving everything we were actually using to a front pocket of the bag made it not only easier to stamp up, but also made it easier to trick noxers into thinking I was digging for bottled water.
• I really need to get some printer ink. Writing out that many clues took forever this morning, which of course just allowed outside to heat up even more.

Happy trails and inky fingers!
Rogue Artist

Second Find and Family Time

So, I went hunting again today. I was running a whole bunch of errands with the kiddo, and decided that we had enough time to run to the park. I had attempted this box the other day, but there were Scouts all over the place, so I had to come back.

Before we headed out of the house, I double checked my letterboxing kit - currently a huge ziploc bag with multiple smaller ziploc baggies in it. There was actually a fabulous thread on Atlas Quest the last day or two all about what people keep in their letterboxing kits. One of the folks, Mama Cache, compiled all of the answers to the threads into a list on her blog over here. I made sure this time to have the stuff I forgot the other day - namely something to clean the stamps with.

This find was really a lot of fun for me. I had really enjoyed the clue and walk the other day. Today, I really enjoyed getting to share this with my son. So, I gave the kiddo a quick run-down of what letterboxing is. Explained that we had to be sneaky, because we didn't want anyone to see what we were doing. And of course the question came up "Well, what do I tell someone if they ask what we're doing? Do I have to lie?". And the perfect answer to this flashed into my head - "No, sweetie, I don't want you to lie. You tell them your mama said never talk to strangers and you let me answer any questions they have." Yay - reinforcing honesty as a good thing, reinforcing not talking to strangers, and not having to really be worried about it, since the park was empty.

He thought the whole sneaky thing was really cool - sorta like we were spies trading secret messages. He's even asked if he can go boxing again with me, and if we could make him his own stamp. He's decided that he should have the trail name Agent X - I think because it's so spy-sounding.

So, this was a microbox. At least, what I think is considered a microbox. So now, I've learned something new to add to my list of stuff I've learned...

1. Keep small pieces of paper or cardstock in the letterboxing kit on which to stamp the small sig stamp. Not all boxes have logbooks due to size contraints.
2. I really really need to get a logbook - this whole folded index card thing is starting to be irritating, and it's only my second find. Maybe I should make one using normal book-binding. Or maybe I should stop being so difficult and just go find a nice blank book like the one I planned on using but can't find.
3. I'm going to need a heck of a lot more pink stuff if the kiddo and the hubby are both going to start joining me on my adventures. I was hoping to use the remainder of what I have to carve some for plants, but it's starting to look like I'll need it for sig stamps. What a nice problem to have. :-)
   

My adventures begin...

Decided last week that the family should take a "staycation" this summer. So, I started looking online for fun things to do around town. Stumbled across letterboxing. Remembered reading an article in Family Fun many moons ago about it. Remembered my mom telling me I'd enjoy it after she read a different article about it. And the wheels in my head started turning....

Started considering letterboxing... June 3, 2009
Found LbNA site and Atlas Quest
Carved first stamp out of an eraser because I was too impatient for my supplies to arrive from Stampeaz... June 8, 2009.
Supplies arrived from Stampeaz and carved first stamp out of the pink stuff.. later on June 8, 2009.

First find... June 9, 2009 (Man's Best Friend)

Things I've learned today while letterboxing:

1. Don't forget the baggie with the wet paper towels in it at your desk at work - you end up with ink on the inside of your shirt that way.
2. Just because a clue says drive-by or 5-10 minute walk does not mean that you'll find it that quickly; it could take A LOT longer..
3. No matter how "short" it's supposed to be, bring water - the Texas sun is hot after 5 minutes of walking, no matter how nice it was when you got out of the car.
4. Watch out for thorny vines - they jump out and bite you when you least expect it.
5. Jeans, although smart to wear while letterboxing, do not provide complete protection from said jumping thorny vines.
6. Be prepared for noxers to have overtaken the area - you might have to come back another day even if you do find the right place.
7. No matter how disappointed or agitated you may be, it is unacceptable to cause injury to said noxers, especially when it's a bunch of kids. Go home, lick your thorny vine wounds, and come back another day.
8. Watch your step - if you're walking and observing the pretty butterfly, it's easy to not notice the huge rock that jumped on the path, intent on twisting your ankle.
9. Same goes for cool looking lizards, snakes and birds.
10. The safest think to do is actually STOP on the trail while you admire nature; that way only thorny vines will sneak up on you.
11. Planters really do apprecite comments, even if you don't find their box, and they really are quite nice. So make sure to comment, even if those darned noxers prevented you from stamping in.
12. It was really smart to have different sized personal stamps. Although it wasn't so smart to make one out of cheap eraser because you were so impatient, because after one stamp-in, it's already sorta crumbly.

First virtual plant - June 9, 2009 (The First Immortal)

1. Virtuals are fun to make.
2. I need more clip art on my computer.

So concludes today's adventures in letterboxing... Hopefully I'll have more fun with it tomorrow.