Lion’s Head Revisited

I haven’t been doing much “maintenance” on my boxes because most are still listed as being “NEVER” found.  But… in light of having ruined my old logbook, I wanted to retrieve each of the images into my new book.  So today we took a walk out to the Lion’s Head box behind our house.  To my delight there are a few comments in the logbook.  Several non-boxers have found it (I have hidden it a bit better now) and really enjoyed it.  As well a couple of new boxers have visited.  How cool is that.  So… the hitchhiker that I left as first-finders prize has moved on it’s way.

It was a beautiful sunny fall morning and we had quite a nice walk along the escarpment bluffs overlooking Isthmus Bay and south toward Lion’s Head.   A great day to revisit an awesome view.

Logbook Blues

OK, have any of you ever had this happen? Two days before the BoxON! event I pulled out my letterboxing kit to make sure I had everything ready to go. To my absolute horror, my logbook was wet. There was a big stain where something??? had leaked into the top and all my stamped images in the top half and centre portion of the book were completely melted into one big blob ~ some of them I could still see faintly, others were completely gone! Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrgh! (My husband tells me that the more r’s there are, the more distress it shows!) To say the least, I was very, very upset. So… I rushed down to Chapters (it’s about a 2 1/2 hour drive from home) to buy a new logbook exactly like the old one I had (I love my logbook. It looks like an old leather book with gold trimwork and a flap that comes up around the front with a magnetic closure. It has faint lines, but I find that they do not detract at all from the images ~ they are so faint ~ and they help me to keep my writing straight. I just love it). Anyways… my first task was to go through and number the pages that had something on them so “I CAN REPLACE THE IMAGES IN THE EXACT ORDER THAT I GOT THEM IN THE FIRST PLACE. Now I know, you will say that is a “dumb” idea, but I’m a bit of a perfectionist in that way. There are a few images that are no longer available for one reason or another that I will simply cut and paste into the new book once the old one is completely dry. However, I’m going to do my best to revisit each of my finds and replace those images. (I only had about 26 finds under my belt, so it’s not really that many, and most of them are within a couple of hours of home.)

So… how to make sure this doesn’t happen again? I decided that I needed a “waterproof” container to keep my logbook in. I found a couple of nifty ideas on the internet that I thought I would pass on here.

1. Create a case out of duct tape. Now the plans that I found were for a case for a video game kit. But I adapted them to fit my logbook. Here is the url. (I don’t know if you’ll be able to download this without being a member of the unschooling group it was on, but here it is)….. http://f1.grp.yahoofs.com/v1/sO_pSNjT40R3UpJ920sfMlg9MGDqRP0Dm7BKIIASDqf5JEaE5blN_ykEoenuPkeQNozzuFyef_DIbUlRDwVicL3rV8XBsu4NsF8eng/DuctTapeCaseHowTo.pdf

ykEoenuPkeQNozzuFyef_DIbUlRDwVicL3rV8XBsu4NsF8eng/DuctTapeCaseHowTo.pdf

Here is a photo of my case and how it turned out.

2. Knit/crochet a waterproof bag/case out of recycled grocery bags. I thought this was a really clever idea, but I wanted something quicker. However, I will pass this on for you.

Take your grocery bag and lay it flat on the table. Cut off the bottom (small strip) and the handles. Now cut into one inch strips / loops (no need to be accurate here). Slip knot the loops together to form a continuous “thread” of “yarn”. The suggestion was that the writing (from the bags) will create nice colour “blobs” on your finished product. I would also suggest that you use different coloured bags in long sections (like you would different coloured yarn) to create a different effect.

You can use any knitting or crochet pattern to create a bag (or whatever else you want) out of this resulting yarn. I have bags and bags and bags and thought this was a really clever way to reuse them (rather than throwing them out). So all you crafty people out there ~ have fun!!!

After “THE event”

Well, BoxON! Guelph has come and gone and I must say I thoroughly enjoyed myself. It was great to meet many of the “trail names” that have become familiar as I peruse the Boards and forums. Not to mention, the folks who have taken the time to carve and plant many of the boxes I’ve already found. The weather cooperated beautifully and there was a great turnout at Riverside Park in Guelph. So…. in the aftermath I’ve finally had a chance to sit down with my log book and “assess the damage” (that is to say figure out how many exchanges I made and how many new boxes and event stamps and cooties and hitchhikers I logged). Wow! My numbers of stamped images have almost doubled ~ JUST IN ONE DAY!!

I’ve got to say that in some ways many of them don’t “feel” like letterboxes. You know ~ no clue, no search, no stealth, no sitting in the bush stamping in to a logbook as leaves blow (or rain falls) around you!! That’s not to say that I’m not happy to have them, but it does feel a little bit like cheating. All I had to do was sit at a table and colour and stamp, colour and stamp, colour and stamp and pass my logbook around for others to do the same. My hands were covered with ink by about the first hour. I don’t know how all you people keep so clean!!!

Anyways…. I am very, very happy to have gone and met so many fine people. I hope to be able to do this every year!! And thanks so much to Fiddleheads, Lone R and whomever else contributed to the planning of the event and setting up all those great boxes in the park and around the area. It was a great time!!