October Box of the Month

2015 Pumpkin Carving Party

This weekend we took a break from stamp carving to carve some pumpkins.  We always have a pumpkin carving party with my parents, sisters, and nieces.  This year we also celebrated one of my nieces 16th birthday and she invited a few friends.  Fun was had by all.

I just retired my October BOTM.  It has had a few extra finders lately.  There is a family from Ky and another from Al that has been coming up to Evansville once or twice a month.  They have been finding my boxes for the past few months.  It is nice to have some new finders but I wish they could plant something for me.

Lake near my BOTM

In my previous post I told that I planted a letterbox/geocache hybrid.  Well, it was not approved :(  I was disappointed, frustrated, and angry.  I had to go out pull the box and find a new hiding spot.  I hid it this morning and got word this evening that it had been approved.  I will never plant another geocache again.  Why do they make it so hard?  Oh well, it's over now.

I am feeling lazy and I think next month I will hide my BOTM closer to the trail head.  If we get any snow the locals will thank me.

Waterfall near BOTM

Friday is my 5 year letterboxing anniversary.  I will celebrate with a new box of course.  I wanted to plant it today but Lil Ewok wouldn't cooperate.  We are going to do it first thing tomorrow morning.

Planted my first hybrid

Lil Ewok at the trail head

Lil Ewok and I were very busy this morning.  We spent about an hour and a half planting letterboxes.

A few years ago I started getting LTCs with food ingredients in the mail.  I had no idea who was sending them or what was meeting made but I loved the idea.  Something happened and I never got all the ingredients but I was inspired to try it as a traditional series.

Angel Mounds

Today we planted a 12 boxes series called, "What's Cooking?"  There are 8 ingredients and few other things.  You gotta have something to wash it down.  And you can't eat alone.  I had a lot of fun making the boxes but where was I going to hide them?

Indiana Jones LEGO Minigif

I have posted about the trails as Angel Mounds before.  There are miles of trails and I believe that there are only 1-2 boxes there.  The Indiana Jones box that I planted there went missing after a year.  I wanted to recarve and replant but I never got around to it.

That's when I saw the LEGO Minifigure LTC swap.  I decided that I would carve up Indy and hide him at Angel Mounds again.  I have been thinking for a while now about planting a hybrid so I thought this was my chance.  A friend had given me an ammo can and I got to work.

We hid all 13 this morning.  It may take a few days for my geocache to get approved but I am excited :)  It was a beautiful day to be out and we got a lot accomplished!

PS-I discovered that my geocache is not approved :(  I am very disappointed.  I guess I need to change out the container and remove the swag.

Fireflies LTC

Things that Glow: Fireflies

I am in the "Things that Glow" LTC tracker and I had a lot of fun making my card.

I quickly found an image that I liked and carved my stamp.  But I wasn't sure how to make it glow.  I searched the web for a glow in the dark ink pad but didn't find anything.  So I used the next best thing-glow in the dark embossing powder.

I stamped my stamp in yellow ink and then used the glow embossing powder.  They look pretty cool but need something.

Adding some splatter to the edge

I used to have some glow in the dark tape that could be used as a border but I couldn't find it.  I cleaned the basement during Spring Break and I must have gotten rid of it because I never used it.  I also thought about trimming the edge of the card and adding a layer of glow paper.  I found some glow origami paper online but decided to try glow paint.  I found some old glow puffy paint and tried painting a border but I didn't like it.  I bought some glow in the dark paint, covered my stamp image, and splatted the paint on.  I really liked this because it looked like fireflies in the distance.

I finished my cards early and planted the stamp in Crown Hill Cemetery in Indy and few months ago :)

Back to Hemlock Clifts

Swimming at SIL 

On PAL Day 2013 I was gung ho and planted 6 boxes.  One was at a library here in Evansville celebrating their 100 anniversary.  Then I planted 4 boxes on a 3 mile trail at Ferdinand State Forest.  And the last box of the day was at Hemlock Cliffs in Crawford Co.

Hemlock Cliffs

We drive past the sign for Hemlock Cliffs 4-5 times a year when we go visit my sister-in-law.  I wanted to see the area so I planted a box there.  Based on my online research I knew there was a mile trail loop and some rocky/waterfall areas.  I didn't want to stay to long and I was alone so I planted the box, viewed the main waterfall and left.

We were up at my sister-in-laws this weekend and before we left home my husband and I had talked about going on a hike.  My sister-in-law has 40 acres and we usually just walk her property but I suggested that we go to the cliffs.

Cool steps in the rocks

Saturday afternoon rolls around and some of the kids were tired of swimming and I suggest that we go to Hemlock Cliffs.  Three of the kids wanted to go and we took off.  It's about a 20 minute drive to the cliffs.

Checking out a "cave"

Two years ago I had planted the box at the parking area to make it easy to get to. I figured that it would not get many finders since folks would not want to go that far off the interstate to grab the box.

I walked up and found the box out in the open but it was in great shape.  According to AQ it only had 2 finders in 2013.  I was excited to see that it had 2 other finders this year :)  I initialed one of the corners of the logbook (which I often do when performing maintenance) and put it back where it was supposed to be.  I was very happy that it was still there, in good shape, and had a few more finders.

Selfie :)  Me, the princess & Lil Ewok.
Lego Clone trooper is to cool for selfies 

After that, the kids and I walked the 1 mile trail loop.  The kids liked the part that followed the rocks and stream but fussed when the trail started to head back to the cars.  Lil Ewok asked me to carry him right as we could start to see cars thru the trees.  The trail was pretty and I am glad that we walked it.  We didn't find any boxes/caches/Munzee but had a great weekend.

Labor Day Weekend

Looking for a good spot to plant

We just had a great weekend camping at Clifty Falls State Park in Madison, In.  It was about 3 hrs from home.  I was in high school the last time that I was there.  This was my husbands and kids first time.

I looked on Atlas Quest while planning for the trip and I was excited to see that there was one box there.  But we looked for it and could not find it.  It had not been found in 2 years.  We did plant a box while we were there so now they have one box again.  My noxer husband said that I should have brought more boxes to plant.  I guess that means we will have to come back another day.

Creek Peek program

One of the great things about Clifty Falls is the creek stomping.  One of the tails is directly thru the creek.  The kids loved this trail.  Also, the creek is full of fossils.  I picked up a little one for Lil Ewok and the princess asked me to help her find one.  I told her if she can't find a fossil she must have her eyes closed.

Fossils

We did a few nature programs while we were there.  One was a creek peek.  They gave the kids nets and encouraged them to catch fish and bugs from the water.  Two of my kids scooped up crayfish.  They were so excited to get to chase all the little critters around in the puddles.

 We also made bubbles at the nature center and took an owl walk.  My kids were so tired and we probably should have skipped the owl walk.  The naturalist called for 3 owls and the one that called back is the Barred owl that you hear all the time.

Big Clifty

The trails at Clifty Falls are pretty rugged.  There is no trail strait down to the creek; they are very rocky with lots of switch backs.  There are 3 big waterfalls-Big Clifty Falls, Little Clifty Falls, and the Tunnel falls.  It sounds odd but the railroad made a 600 foot long tunnel down by the creek.  But the railroad went bankrupt and never finished the project.  Seems like it would have been much easier to go around the creek/valley/ravine.

The campground was nice.  We were in the primitive area which was very flat but it had little shade and for a few hours each day we hid in the shade of the tents, van, etc.  The kids were happy with the nearby playground.

Fat man squeeze

With all the hiking (and heat) we ran out of water/Gatorade.  The two big kids and I ran to town to get more drinks and grabbed 2 letterboxes in Madison.  It was dark at this point but we had fun finding them.  Good weekend overall :)

Tombstone Tales Event

On Saturday, my boxing buddy (G-MA) and I went to the Tombstone Tales event in St Louis, Mo.  I picked her up at 7 and we drove 2.5-3 hrs to Bellefontaine Cemetery.

We arrived about 2 hours before the event to get the 2 large series of boxes planted there.  One of the series was easy to find.  They went along with the different symbols used on graves.  It was a very interesting series.

The other series was harder.  You were supposed to do your homework before you came to find the boxes.  But I had jury duty last week and my buddy didn't realize that there was homework.  And we discovered that we probably could not have found them anyway because we didn't have the right map.

So it maybe "slackboxing" but we would stop anytime we saw other people stopped.  Some folks were very helpful and said come on over and stamp on the back of my car.  And other folks said let us put it back and then you can find it.  When we stopped another car for help they just said I think it is over there somewhere :(

With all the issues we had with the clues, I was surprised that we actually found more than half of the hard series.

The event itself was just 2 hours.  We had a pitch in lunch and exchanged.  I really enjoy this part but I know G-MA does not.  She would rather be out boxing.  I got my exchanges quickly and we got out of there.  I got to exchange with wandaandpete!  We ended up leaving before the group photo but we were both ok with that.

I am now officially a member of the "Been Locked in a Cemetery" club.  The cemetery closed at 5 but we thought with the event they would be open longer.  We arrived at the gate a little after 5 and it was locked.  We called the number and about 15 minutes later (we should have got another box) the security guard came and let us out.  I guess she was out driving around the cemetery to see if anyone was locked in.  When she arrived there was another car with her that I had seen driving around taking pictures.

We found 26 boxes in 5 hours and are determined to come back and get more :)

Frogs, Toads, and Turtles

Frogs, Toads & Turtles: Toad Friend

I am in the Frogs, Toads & Turtles LTC tracker.  My oldest and youngest boys love toads/frogs.  In the warm evenings you can hear them croaking around our house.  Lil Ewok says that he wants to see them.  So he and Lego Clone Trooper get flash lights and go looking.  Lil Ewok always comes back excited about all the critters they found.  Below are some pics of the toad/frogs we have seen in our yard.

For this card I needed camouflage paper.  I thought the best way to do that was with my Gelli plate (of course).  I tried a few different things but for most of the cards I put down tan paint first, put a circle stencil, and pulled a print.  I didn't clean the plate and put the green paint down, stuck a swirly dry embossing folder on it, and pulled a print on top on the previous paper.  I think they turned out really well.

I stamped the stamp, applied a layer of antique Mod Podge, let them dry, cut them out, glued them to the textured grey paper.  They needed a little something so I took the same brown stamp pad that I used to stamp the toads and rubbed it on the edge of the cards.  I am very happy with the whole thing :)

Frog in the holly bush.

Frog on kitchen window.

Frog on the kitchen door.