First Finders!

Today we looked for 2 letterboxes and we were "First Finders" for both :)  Woo Hoo!  We went to Posey County, which is west of us, and Warrick County, which is east of us.

We started off at Harmonie State Park in Posey County.  Someone came over last fall for our event and planted a box while she was here.  For some reason she never posted the clue.  She recently posted on the Indiana board to see if anyone would be interested in going after it.  I wanted to get out and needed to go to Harmonie anyway so she sent me her notes.

The princess with our first box of the day. 

All we had were her rough notes but were able to find it.  The stamp was really cool and my daughter liked the logbook.  It was an exciting adventure.

When you plant a box in a state park in Indiana you are supposed to fill out a Geocaching permit.  It was time to renew my permits so I went and checked on 3 of my boxes while we were there.  Sadly one of them was missing.  I think I will retire and not recarve.

After that we stopped and got some lunch at the DQ in Mt Vernon and headed to Newburgh in Warrick County.

Princess and Lil Ewok at the second box. 

This box was also planted by someone out of town and in an area now full of letterboxes.  But we were happy to get it and be first finders.  The image was a cannon but the baby kept saying that it was a "Choo choo."  He has a birthday coming up and I think we will plant a "choo choo" box for him.  Glad we got these boxes before it gets to cold.

Camping & Carving

Kids carving

We camp a lot with my parents and my nieces.  When we are all together we letterbox together.  My parents work a lot a don't have time to letterbox on their own but they all went with us in the fall to our event, Peace Love & Harmonie at Harmonie State Park.  There was a raffle and my niece got some carving tools.  We kind of forgot about them until she recently starting asking me to teach her how to carve.  I told her that we were all going camping soon and we should do it then.  We were camping at Harmonie and we already have all of the boxes planted there.

Our new tent :)

The weather was beautiful so we hiked some and carved some.  My family just got a new tent because the zipper doors broke on our old tent the last time we used it.  It was six years old and we wore it out!  The kids also rode bikes, played on the playground, and hung out at the Nature Center.  We tired to fly kites but it was not windy enough.  We always stop and get an ice cream on our way back to Evansville.  It was a very nice weekend. 

Peace Love and Harmonie SUCCESS!

Our letterboxing event was Saturday at Harmonie State Park.  We had a great time!  We had 38 people sign up from 3 states!  When I first thought about having an event I imagined a picnic with a dozen people from Evansville.  I never guessed people would come from all around.  The other hosts are already talking about a weekend event in the spring.
The only complaint/suggestion that we got about the event was that people didn't have enough time to get all the boxes.  I was really surprised at how many table top boxes were sent in.  It will probably take me a few hours to log all the event boxes, exchanges, PTs, table tops, trail boxes, night boxes, cooties, fleas, etc.
My family camped at the state park before and after the event.  One of the things I liked best about the weekend was exchanging at the campground.  It was more laid back than the event.  That is probably what I will look forward to the most if we do a camp out next time.

Stamping at the shelter house 9/22/12

My boys stamping.  Lego Clone Trooper (in blue) had a great time.  He got more exchanges and table tops than I did.  He is already looking forward to another event.

The Princess and my nieces stamping table tops. 

This is the cemetery that we planted several boxes at.

BPWigand and Family, R2-D2, and Daddy's Favorite Princess stamping a pirate series. 

Event Planting

I have been very busy lately getting ready for our event.  I believe I said that I have never been to a big event before so I am both nervous and excited.  But the event is being put on by a group of us and I really feel like I am not doing much.  Oh well.

I made eight trail boxes for the event (I posted some of them earlier).  Three will be at a cemetery and five around a trail at the campground.  I feel sorry for the Princess because she has had to walk the cemetery trail three times now.  We went once to check it out & look for hiding spots, again to plant the boxes, and lastly to put the clues in the first box for the bonus.  It is a flat mile but she is staring to complain that she doesn't like letterboxing.

Then I have five fall stamps I will leave there for the  fall.  That trail is also a mile and I feel that that is too many stamps to stay there forever.

My HIPS boxes are ready to go and I have been collecting items for the raffle.  I am a little concerned that we will have to many raffle items.  One of the others putting on the event had a big basket of stuff when we met a few weeks ago.  Most of it she didn't even get out for me to see.

I have been thinking about making a "First Finder" LTC.  I wanted the background to be a map and I really struggled to find map scrapbook paper.  I was looking for a road map but this is good enough.  They are being released for the first time in my event trail boxes.

Cemetery Boxes

Here are the stamps that my boys have carved for our event.  My boys LOVE to carve stamps :)  There is a small (2 graves) cemetery at the state park and we want to put some boxes there.  I think I will use the one I carved of grave stones to be a traditional box and make both of these bonus boxes.

Carving Like Crazy

A small group of us are hosting a LB event next month.  It is on the first day of fall so I am carving several fall themed stamps.  This first pic is some that I have so far.  The pumpkin one is recycled from the Autumn Awe LTC swap.  I am working on a hayride for this series too.  These will be going on a trail around the campground.  I am also working on some stamps to go in a small cemetery in the park.  Well, I have made one and my boys are each going to make one.

I have made 4 Hidden In Plain Sight (HIPS) boxes.  The name of our event is Peace Love and Harmonie but I changed it for these stamps (Peace Love and Letterbox).  The other HIPS box is in a little basket.


That is it for now.  I better get back to carving, making pouches, and whatnot.