Annoying auto-commentators

I published a post and within 10 minutes, I had 6 inane auto-comments from people I've never heard of. I've never really had a problem with that before (I've had to delete the occasional comment, but nothing outrageous). I'm requiring sign-ins on the blog and we'll see how that does. I don't want to have to moderate comments, but I can't be spending too much time deleting links to porn sites. I'd rather be doing something fun.

Summer Boxing

Summer in Houston is hot, and the boxing is of the short-hike variety only. That said, we haven't actually gotten out to find that many, as so far our summer has been relatively busy with a few camps and some other activities. The photo above was taken at Palmetto State Park, which is a lovely diversion near Gonzales, Texas. We found Boots Tex's fabulous box Ram I Am, which is on the short nature trail. The park looks like a Jurassic wonderland, as it is dominated by these large palmettos, the kind you see in South Carolina. Unfortunately, the box by Lone Star Quilter in the same park was missing, but it was still a fun (not too long) little walk. We were on our way back from a weekend in Wimberley.

My sister has moved to Austin, so we're looking forward to having the opportunity to find a lot more boxes in the Central Texas area.

Right now, most of our energy is going towards planning the Great Chile Cheeseburger Tour '08, otherwise known as our summer vacation to New Mexico and Colorado. We hit the road soon, and hopefully will provide updates as we go.

For old time's sake, here's a mushroom picture. As I was explaining to the folks in the mushroom hunters' postal ring (a small and very enjoyable postal ring I'm in right now), we don't hunt fungi like the rest of them. We don't eat the mushrooms, we just photograph them. We're the birders of the mushroom world, always trying to increase our life lists.

3rd Time's the Charm?

For the 3rd year in a row, my beloved Rice Owls are heading to Omaha for the College World Series. This team is NOT considered as talented as the last two years, but they sure are scrappy. I'm not sure how they'll do, but I'm thrilled at how they persevered this year and are one of the last 8 teams standing.

Because of family obligations, we couldn't attend the post-season series like we normally do. We did get to go to a couple of in-season games (where my 6 year old missed being conked in the head by 4 inches--and never looked up). So, because we couldn't be there, we let the kids stay up late last night to watch Rice's come-from-behind win over Texas A&M. The first CWS game will be this weekend, probably Sunday.

Last year, I had a Go Owls! box out all summer, and in 3 months, only one person found it. If you're interested in finding a similar box this year (I'll use a different stamp and a different location), I'll put one out in time for first pitch this weekend. Leave a comment. And if you're rooting for someone else in the CWS, let's get some cheering and jeering going.

The Mystery of the Carver's Castle

We've got a Halloween treat in the works. Nothing's set in stone, but there's tales circulating of goblins and ghosties in the woods. Which woods? Well, that'll be for you to figure out. Look for clues to the case in all sorts of places.

Reader LTC

It's almost summer! Which of course means summer reading. I created this little LTC, reader, in honor of that tradition. I cut up one of Mr. Dewberry's old scifi paperbacks and used some other supplies to create it, including this cute little Gorey cat I had carved a couple years ago and never really used. It's not listed anywhere but this blog. I made about 10 and I'm not sure if I'll make any more. If you'd like one, just AQ mail me and ask for Reader .

Armchair Traveling

I love road trips. When I was a kid, we would pack up the Suburban and go off for 3 weeks, camping and exploring. The first day, my dad would make us get up at 4 am, and we'd stumble, sleepily, out to the car. We slept sprawled out in the back, without seatbelts of course, just lying on top of all the camping gear. We'd all go back to sleep and dad would gleefully get in a good 4 hours of driving before anyone asked to go to the restroom.

We don't do that--my husband is a night owl, not an early bird--but this summer we are planning a family two-week road trip to the 4 corners area of New Mexico, Arizona, Utah & Colorado. We'll see some sights (lots of sights & sites), and have some extraordinary experiences. The kids have put their orders in--they want to climb to the top of a mountain, hike, boulder scramble, rock hound, visit a mine, eat pie, search for fossils and creek hop. Me? I want family time and a chance to get out of the Houston summer swamp and breathe mountain air. And Mr. Dewberry (Asterix) will be happy with a few brew pubs and sight-seeing that part of the country. He grew up overseas, so he's been to amazing places all across the world, but he's woefully inexperienced in the kind of Great American road trip that I cut my teeth on every summer. Tech geek that he is, he's already made a nice Google map with all our stops and sights nicely outlined with pegs.

Where my husband has my dad beat, hands-down, is in his pleasure in ambling along. With my father, we were always trying to get to our destination as quickly as possible. Asterix, like me, likes quirky out-of-the-way stops off the Interstates and doesn't mind taking 8 hours to get somewhere you could get in 4. Even when we were dating, he'd say, "Wanna take a fun cut?" which was always a scenic route, as opposed to a direct short cut.

To that end, I have a plethora of books (Family Fun in fill-in-the-blank and others), and have immersed myself in reading about out-of-the-way hamlets, roadside attractions and snake museums. In some ways, the anticipation and the planning is as much fun as the actual adventure. And, although, we can't go everywhere, I have had a great time figuring out some of the possibilities and filing away others for the future.

And many thanks to my friend Astro D, as she seems to have salted the area with letterboxes in many of just those wacky out-of-the-way places that fit our plans to a T. Of course, we already were planning on staying in a wigwam in Holbrook, AZ and then she went and planted a letterbox there (fate)!

More on plans later, but if anyone wants to make not-to-be-missed box suggestions, I'm interested.

Making an LTC

Like lots of folks, I've been making LTCs--or letterboxer (or letterboxing, whatever) trading cards. This is one I made today. You'll have to forgive the askewedness of the image. My scanner is only a feed-through, and usually it won't take things that small. Today it did, but it tilted it a bit. There's an additional embellishment I want to add to this one, but if I did, it'd never get through the scanner.

Don't look if you're in the 4th of July swap and you want to be surprised...


I've got a good creative outlet with this. Somehow, within the parameters of 2.5 inches by 3.5 inches, there's room for a lot of creativity. Usually, I kick around ideas in my head--sometimes I have one right away, sometimes it takes trial and error. I often end up carving multiple stamps and find myself rearranging little scraps of paper a gazillon times. But, for this card, I had the idea yesterday and it just came together beautifully.

The steps for this card were:

Use yesterday's coffee and this morning's grounds to coffee-dye some white paper (to make it look aged). Let it dry. Brush on more coffee to splotch it more and then let it dry.

Carve the stamp.

Cut the LTC sized card stock and cut the contrasting stars paper. Adhere.

Stamp the Constitution stamp onto the (now-dry) coffee-stained paper (ah, smellovision). Cut it out irregularly.

Somehow get a candle to stay lit and singe the edges of the "we the people" image.

Adhere. Admire.


Update: I thought I'd add this quote from one of my heroes to the back:

"My faith in the Constitution is whole, it is complete, it is total."

Where Am I?

This is the time of year where things always get frenetically busy around here and I don't have much extra time.

Quick updates:
My son's OM team finished 3rd at regionals and went on to state. In the interim, they worked incredibly hard to improve their vehicle and make the tasks more automated. Their state scores were significantly higher and they finished 3rd at state too. They missed going to Worlds by one place, but honestly, we're all more than a bit tired of OM and ready to do other things.

Baseball season is in full swing. That means games and/or practices almost every night. We love baseball season, but it takes its toll!

Spring break was spent in Seattle. We found a number of great letterboxes and got to meet a lot of the PNWers...that was cool. I have great pictures.

We co-hosted a smaller event in beautiful Coldspring. The dogwoods were in bloom and there were dog boxes everywhere. As always, it was a blast! The kids and adults had a lot of fun, even though there were raindrops that needed dodging.

I'll be posting some photos when I get a chance.

Relandscaped, AGAIN?

I'm a semi-urban letterboxer. I live inside a city, but it's semi-suburban and semi-urban around here. It means that a lot of the parks where we choose to plant are city parks (I am a no-plant-on-private-land kind of a gal). Some of these parks have nature trails, but some don't. You have to be clever with your hides and go small. I'm not sure how successful I am at urban planting, but I try.

I'm pretty sanguine about the whole planting thing. I love to carve and I like planting. I like putting my little boxes out there, and I don't get too upset when they go missing. For some of them, there's a brief moment of silence, but usually a shrug of the shoulders will suffice. And then I try to figure out whether to recarve or not (usually not). I have a long list of boxes, probably 10-15, that have been lost to urban landscaping.

Currently, in the park near my house, they've had the community service folks or prisoners (they're wearing orange jumpsuits emblazoned with Department of Corrections) removing non-native plants. The park is becoming quite denuded. I applaud this effort ('bout time!), so I'm willing to sacrifice my Rabbit House box to their efforts.

Now, I've lost another one, my Calculator Games 2 box. I liked this one and thought the hide was pretty good. But, all the foliage around the gazebo was stripped...right along with my hiding spot. All-told, I just can't believe how often urban parks are relandscaped. I just don't think I paid attention to that before when I wasn't looking for spots to hide little boxes.

Goodbye Ruby

"There's no time to lose" I heard her say
Catch your dreams before they slip away

Last week, I learned that my dear friend Ruby Tuesday, part of the Celtic Lions crew, was entering the last phase of her life's grand adventure. Her husband let us know that she was in hospice and that her doctors said she just had days left. The end came on Friday, February 8. Ovarian cancer is a pernicious, horrible disease. This last bit hasn't been easy.

Don't question why she needs to be so free
She'll tell you it's the only way to be

Ruby was a force of nature. A truly sassy diva with a quick tongue and a quicker wit, you didn't want to be on her bad side. But, if you were on her good side, there was much joy and laughter. "Attention: Tupperware Tarts!" would come the email--with some other nonsense or crazy story, making sure that no one took the small stuff too seriously.

Behind that veneer of fun was a will of steel that compelled her to keep going. Going, through all that chemo and doctor's visits and setbacks and tiny triumphs. She'd offer us just small glimpses into that world of doctors and treatments and tests, but mainly, our troop of Texas moms (Mother of Five, Puddlesplasher & Viewfinder and I) served as laughing therapy. We kept it light. She'd disappear for a bit, with those bits getting longer and longer, but always she'd be back with another dry observation on the absurdity of life and others. That she won't be back with a witty pun or a zinger has devastated us all.

She just can't be chained to a
Life where nothing's gained and nothing's lost at such a cost

For me, she was a great mentor. At first, she answered all my questions about traditional and postal letterboxing, but then our conversations broadened to life in general. She was a veteran of the PTO wars, been through years of OM/DI and knew quite a bit about raising out-of-the-box kids as well. I often say that she helped me learn how to raise sons and raise a ruckus at the same time, and my life has been much, much richer for it. Somehow, through sheer will, she managed to make it for major milestones in her boys' lives--graduations & weddings--making wedding favors and offering encouragement--a one-woman cheering section for her family.

Lose your dreams and you will lose your mind
Ain't life unkind?
Goodbye Ruby Tuesday, who could hang a name on you?
When you change...

Ruby was as creative as you'd expect. Although she'd usually draft her son to do the carving, she was an expert at gluing and transforming logbooks into stunning works of art. A postal from her was a treat for the senses. And several of her traditional boxes--the meese and the Scarlet Pimpernel--have been some of the highlights of my boxing days. Letterboxing was just a small part of who Ruby was. But, it was the window through which I got to know her. And as her boxes live on, I hope others will get to experience a bit of her too.

Peace my friend. And for those you leave behind.

...Still, I'm gonna miss you...

Planter's Malaise

In the more than 3 years since I planted my first box (six months after starting), I have planted more than 300 boxes. I have no idea exactly how many as I don't keep track. Some were temporary (intentionally or not) and others have lasted the whole time.

I like carving; I like hiding boxes. I'm sanguine about them going missing--you stick a box out there you gotta expect maintenance workers, landscape revisions (who knew the city did so much relandscaping of its parks, though), flooding, critters and more. Things happen and I may have a moment of silence but I don't get too upset about a missing box. I can always recarve, although what I generally choose to do is plant a different box so that people may find the new one.

But lately, I've been getting "reports" that just are disheartening. After one of them, I lose a little bit more of my enthusiasm. For instance:

"I got poison ivy from your box. You should be a little more careful where you hide letterboxes."

Well, folks who know me know that I am highly, highly allergic to poison ivy. I don't hide where there's any signs of it--hairy vines, three-leaved plants, etc. I know the plant well and I avoid it, because I have had one too many uncomfortable encounters with it. I can almost guarantee that when I planted it, there was no poison ivy. In this case, it could have arisen afterwards...or, the accuser could have found it elsewhere.

"Logbook's wet. You need to replace it."

Could you say anything else? Maybe even just cool park or nice stamp. How about...we laughed at the crazy ducks? Or, we didn't know this hidden gem was here? Anything?

More often though, it's just a "found" with no details. It would take 30 seconds to write something...that's what I do, even if I have to stretch to come up with something nice. I do it. Because I know that someone put some effort (usually) into their creation. I benefited from their efforts, so a thanks is in order.

And so on. I do get lovely found reports--I got a very nice one from lionsmane yesterday in fact (even though he was also reporting a missing box). What do the nice found report people have in common? Pretty much always, they're planters too.

We all have to deliver negative news sometimes. But how you couch those communications has a big effect on how they're received. And too many of these negative notes have given me planter-itis.

A more personal blog

I like to keep this blog primarily about letterboxing. But, often over the last year and a half, I've wanted to comment about issues and things (pop culture, politics, education, parenting, etc.) that have nothing to do with that topic. I restrained myself, but no more!

Finally, I've created a more personal blog. The title is an homage to George Carlin's great book BrainDroppings. It's possible that letterboxing topics may seep in, but that's not the point of the blog.

dewdroppings

I'm not sure how often I'll use it or post. I listed it on AQ under my profile for those who want to subscribe, but I'm not expecting a lot of subscribers. It's really for me to work out some things I feel compelled to say.

~dewberry

LTCs

Well, we've all gone nuts for making these little LTCs (Letterboxing Trading Cards). ATCs (Artist Trading Cards) of course have been around for quite some time. And LTCs are the same idea, except for the restriction that they must include at least one hand-carved stamp. I've been trading them madly and having a lot of fun with it.

I had already made the decision to finish out the postal rings I'm in and then not sign up for more than one at a time. I love postals and love getting to know people through participating in postal rings--but honestly, after the last postal rate increase, I felt the pinch. That, plus the fact that rings creep along in fits and starts. Suddenly, I just didn't really want the long-term commitment that a postal ring necessitates.

So, that's what I'm liking about the LTCs. I can trade as much or as little as I want, and if I'm not in the mood, I don't have to. I still get to see the work of people from all over the US (and different folks, because there are people doing LTCs that never did postals).

The cards range from really simple to highly complex. Mine usually contain more than one image, and I like to create cards that are unexpected. I'll try to post some pictures, but scanning in and all of that isn't one of my strengths.

I like trading, so feel free to contact me via AQ if you're up for a swap.

New Year's Traditions!

Our family has several New Year's Traditions. We started this when the kids were small, because we wanted them to be a bit more adventurous, more open to new things.

Every New Year, we:

• Go somewhere we've never been
• Try an activity we've never tried
• Eat a cuisine we've never eaten before

We pretty took care of the first two, so now onto the third! Eating!!

One of the best things about living in Houston is how you can find any type of people, and thus any type of food. In one short trip down Longpoint, you see an ostioneria, a Colombian bakery, a Vietnamese coffee shop, a Korean deli and much much more. It's like one giant ethnic fondue melting pot. There are also 9998 Mexican restaurants, but that's just a given.

This year, my oldest son closed his eyes and pointed at a map. The nearest country? Morocco! We researched Moroccan restaurants and found two. One was very upscale, renowned for its elegant presentations. The other? A dive in a strip center behind a gas station. Naturally, we went for the dive. We like to order a big sampler off the menu and try lots of dishes, so the dive is definitely more to the budget.

Last night, we loaded in the car and drove to SW Houston to find our Moroccan restaurant. We drove past where it was supposed to be. We circled around again, only to realize that the Moroccan restaurant had become Mexican restaurant number 9999. Drat!

We decided to go somewhere nearby where we'd been before, and took off down the road. Only, a few blocks up, there was Blue Nile, an Ethiopian Restaurant. A little U-turn, and we were sitting inside perusing the menu. Not Moroccan, but still something we hadn't tried.

We had beef, lamb, chicken and a vegetable combination, adapted a bit to the kids' palates (they haven't learned to love spicy yet). The kids loved using the injera and their hands to pick up the food. They tried everything, and they liked most of it and loved some of it, including the chickpeas. I think I might crawl over glass to get some more of their collard greens. I could have made a meal off of just those.

Watching them becoming more adept at using the injera to pick up the food spread in front of them, and eagerly trying everything was exactly what we envisioned five years ago when we started this tradition.

Picking Boxes

For boxes on our home turf, we'll get around to trying to find them all at some point. There are not enough free weekends or days to find them all, but I do a decent job keeping up. If you plant more than one box in our area, we'll definitely find one of yours at some point (sometimes the singletons go missing before we can find them).

But, we do some of our best boxing outside our home county. On the road, the possibilities are just so enthralling--what's around the next bend? When I'm planning a road trip, I try to work in things that we all enjoy--a brewpub for Asterix, rock scrambling or exploring for the boys, letterboxing for me! And, if there's a somewhat-nearby diner known for its mile-hile pie, we've been known to drive more than a little out of our way too. (Someday I'll write the Roadtrippers Guide to Pie.)

There are two kinds of road trips...the kind where you're trying to get somewhere, like a vacation destination, and you have a pretty set route. You can't deviate too much or you'll never arrive where you're going. And then there's the kind of voyage where the road trip itself is the vacation, and the whole point is to tool around seeing sites and exploring. Although I'm fond of both types, the tooling-around road trip is something I truly love.

We went on a three day wandering trip to East Texas. In the year and a half since we'd been in the general area, there has been a box explosion! Trying to decide which boxes to attempt is difficult when there are so many.

Here are some of the criteria I use.

Location: Reading clues, I love it when a planter shows me the true gems of their area. Of course, I want to hit the hot spots (and it's great when there's a box somewhere we'd want to go anyway), but I love it when there's one hidden at a local treasure that isn't on the beaten path.

Planter: Have I found some of your boxes and enjoyed them? Then, I want more! Have I found some of your boxes and not had an enjoyable experience? Maybe your clues are unnecessarily confusing, the locations kind of so-so, or there's something just flat about the experience. If that's the case, I'll probably take a pass. And, if there's only one box by a specific planter, it often means that they dabbled a bit and letterboxing didn't really take. Experience has taught me to avoid those, as I think it takes a bit of planting before you figure out what makes a decent box.

Distance: My boys like to hike (as do we), so we are happy to have a nice walk for a box. But, when you're traveling, every box can't be a hiking box. We mix it up a bit. Even for drive-bys, I like them to be in interesting, unique locations if at all possible (although everyone likes a rest-stop box sometimes).

History: I am a total sucker for a box with a good story.

Variety: In a completely new area, I try to find boxes by as many placers as I can. I like "getting to know" people through their boxes...and I'm not likely to want to stop and exchange when I'm traveling through. I let your boxes be my small glimpse into you and your personality. I like to look at my logbook and see carvings by different people and their completely different styles. It's like a book full of mini postcards from the road.

Of course, even with that criteria, I end up with a pile more clues than we can manage. I make decisions on the spur of the moment, based on time and the moods of the people in the car, about what we'll be attempting. So, it ends up being pretty random which boxes we attempt in the end.

One reason I like driving and taking your time is that there's the stuff that happens that you don't expect.

When we arrived at Martin Dies, Jr. State Park at 2:15, there was a sign up that said there was a snake feeding at 3pm. Well, we had to stay for that! We managed to find a box that had survived Hurricane Rita in a recently re-opened section of the park, and then it was back to the nature center for the feeding.

From the looks on the boys' face, they found it pretty fascinating.

Unfortunately, it meant we had to curtail our boxing a bit, but I loved visiting Martin Dies and I'm sure we'll be back. But really, a snake feeding isn't something you get to see everyday, so that was well worth the trade-off in boxing terms.

From here, it was on to Lake Sam Rayburn, just before a beautiful sunset at dusk, to find petrified wood.

Really the highlight of that day? Being able to catch my youngest son's shoe before it floated off into the lake. I was pretty proud of that, especially as I realized I didn't have an extra pair of shoes. One thing we definitely learned about rockhounding is to wear old shoes!



Here's our load of petrified wood.




In the comments section, I'd love to hear how you pick your boxes when traveling.

Joy!

This photo of my boys running down an Indian ceremonial mound between Alto and Weches, Texas captures what I like about family road trips. Caddoan Mounds State Park was unfortunately and inexplicably closed for the holidays, but this mound was just down the road a bit, in the middle of two fields with a historical marker explaining its significance. Very serendipitous! The kids ran up and down, up and down, over and over again. They had a blast! For more information about this culture, see Boots Tex's Nabedache box.

We're just back from an East Texas letterboxing/rockhounding trip. We found a number of great and thoughtful boxes, and some fantastic petrified wood pieces. We had fun searching for sharks' teeth and fossils in Jacksonville, exploring the site of an old Iron Ore Foundry near Rusk, seeing the devastating changes wrought at Martin Dies State Park from the hurricane and generally traveling around and exploring. It was a great way to close out 2007.

I really appreciate boxes that are thoughtfully placed. When we're visiting from out of town, I like to find the odd bits of history and the interesting locations that we perhaps wouldn't see if you didn't plant a letterbox there. We've really learned to focus on these sorts of quality boxes, and not feel that we have to get every box in an area (we never could anyway!)

As a family, we like to go places we've never been, visiting towns with names we've heard but haven't seen. You never know where some jewel is, just waiting by the side of the road, like these mounds. We were lucky to have great weather--a bit cool, but fair and sunny. The only thing wrong with our trip? Somehow we never found a diner with great pie.

And just for mother of five, we did find this guy while on a great hike at Mission Tejas state park. My youngest stepped on its tail without seeing him. That's why you've got to keep your eyes on the trail!

Mission Tejas was a beautiful spot to hike and enjoy the day. I'd love to go back and camp there someday.

So for 2008, I wish you all much joy and happiness.

What Would You Do?

Faithful blog readers know about the drama of getting rid of old couch. Well, I have a new sofa-related dilemma and I'm curious as to how you would handle it.

Old couch lasted 11 years in pretty good shape (we had it for 17, so there you go). New couch sprang a problem within a couple of months. The stitching on one of the cushions is completely coming undone. I'm not a terrific seamstress to begin with, and it's a little tricky. I could never get the piping to look right. So, after procrastinating for a bit, and watching the problem worsen, I finally managed to call customer service and talk to them.

Turns out, they'll happily send me a new cushion in 3 months, which is longer to wait than I've had the couch. Or, they'll deliver a new couch next Wednesday. Yep, you read that right, a whole brand-spanking-new couch.

There seems to be some sort of "for a lack of a nail" parable here. It seems very wasteful to me to get a whole new couch for something that I thought could be fixed in the first place (by someone who just sews better than I do). On the other hand, I'm having a houseful of company for the holidays and I need them to be able to sit. And maybe the whole couch is a lemon.

What would you do?

First Virtual

I have not done that many virtuals, but I think that they have real potential for mystery and puzzle boxes. Instead of using an encryption technique that has to lead to the name of a park or the entire clue, you can create a puzzle where someone just needs to discover the password. And the password can be any combination of letters and numbers. The traditional box clue then just appears as part of the congratulatory message.

I created my first virtual to go along with my Season's Greetings traditional box. This stamp image took me longer than I think any image ever has to carve, many hours over several days. The virtual is not that difficult, at least I don't think so. I hope people find it fun. The image for the virtual box is different, but on the same theme.

It also strikes me that by creating virtuals I can do better tutorials on puzzling techniques. That way, those readers who are not near enough to find my traditional boxes would still have a reward for their efforts. Would that be something you would like me to create? I'd be interested in hearing readers' thoughts.

The theme of my first virtual is peace. And not coincidentally, that's my wish for you and for this world this holiday season.

~dewberry

For the Girls

I generally letterbox with boys--my husband and two sons. So, when picking boxes, I usually choose themes and places that are going to appeal to the males of the species.

They will go along with me on most boxes as long as the spot is cool and they can skip stones, climb boulders, shimmy up trees, search out fungi or generally explore. But, it's a more fun experience for everyone when they're as excited about the subject matter of the letterboxes as I am.

As soon as the clues were published, I knew there was one set of boxes I'd never get them enthused about: Dress Up Daisy, a series of boxes with a paper doll & her outfits. When mentioning it, all I got were eye rolls.

Luckily, I have a good letterboxing friend with daughters, so we hit the trail yesterday to find this delightful series by Sandibox.

The weather was fabulous (about 15 degrees cooler than it had been and no humidity), the trail was scenic & the company was top-notch. What a nice morning, and a real relief after a busy & stressful week.

Sunday, before & after

Before:

After: