Please re-read below how Thom camouflaged his letterbox. I dunno
about the rest of you but I think this is a great idea. I have
2 of my boxes (at Ft. Snelling, MN) tied with fish line around
a tree trunk and a tree. Then I threw a little dried grass and
leaves on top of them. But I used that monofilament line that
sort of flouresces in the sunlight (easy to spot). And I'm afraid
with a little wind the cover may blow away also. Its also in a
flood plane so anything can happen. My boxes are clear plastic
jars with colored lids. They are water tight and that's an
advantage considering the location, but it would be much nicer
if the lids were more earth-toned rather than bright blue and
red. Well, I guess there's a whole lot more to consider in box
design, placement, etc., esp. if we want them to blend better
with the environment.
Thom Cheney wrote:
> I tied a 2' length of 20# fishing monofilament with a good
> blood knot. At the other end of the line I attached (using a similar
> knot) a wood plug I whittled from a twig. It doesn't have to be
> anything fancy, but it should blend in with the background & have some
> kind of groove so the fishing line won't slip off. On location, I drop
> the letterbox into the hole and hook the plug over a small branch
> growing nearby. You might want to scout your intended spot before
> snipping your fishing line to any length. Anyway, my box is suspended
> in the hole of this tree below eye level.
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box placement, etc.
4 messages in this thread |
Started on 1999-01-03
[L-USA] Re: box placement, etc.
From: Daniel Servatius (elf@pclink.com) |
Date: 1999-01-03 17:49:38 UTC-06:00
[L-USA] Re: box placement, etc.
From: Randy Hall (randy@mapsurfer.com) |
Date: 1999-01-03 20:12:49 UTC-04:00
Daniel Servatius wrote:
> But I used that monofilament line that sort of flouresces in the
> sunlight (easy to spot).
My personal concerns about monofilament is a) the possibility
of wildlife getting tangled in it, or b) the possibility of people
running through the woods off trail (like us orienteers) tripping
over it (this has happened to me with steel wire in the past twice
while orienteering). I think I'll experiment with out of the way
hiding places for now and see how it goes :-)
--
Randy "the mapsurfer"
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> But I used that monofilament line that sort of flouresces in the
> sunlight (easy to spot).
My personal concerns about monofilament is a) the possibility
of wildlife getting tangled in it, or b) the possibility of people
running through the woods off trail (like us orienteers) tripping
over it (this has happened to me with steel wire in the past twice
while orienteering). I think I'll experiment with out of the way
hiding places for now and see how it goes :-)
--
Randy "the mapsurfer"
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[L-USA] Re: box placement, etc.
From: Daniel Servatius (elf@pclink.com) |
Date: 1999-01-03 19:17:23 UTC-06:00
I guess I wasn't clear on how I used the fish line. There is no
excess fish line. It just wraps around the tree and then the
letterbox attaches to the loop and lays at the base. There's
just enough slack that you can position the box to be opened.
This is a good point you make though Randy. So to all: Be sure
if you plan to use fish line that you do as I have done and NOT
create a tripping hazard. Thank you for making that point Randy.
-Dan
Randy Hall wrote:
> Daniel Servatius wrote:
> > But I used that monofilament line that sort of flouresces in the
> > sunlight (easy to spot).
> My personal concerns about monofilament is a) the possibility
> of wildlife getting tangled in it, or b) the possibility of people
> running through the woods off trail (like us orienteers) tripping
> over it (this has happened to me with steel wire in the past twice
> while orienteering). I think I'll experiment with out of the way
> hiding places for now and see how it goes :-)
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excess fish line. It just wraps around the tree and then the
letterbox attaches to the loop and lays at the base. There's
just enough slack that you can position the box to be opened.
This is a good point you make though Randy. So to all: Be sure
if you plan to use fish line that you do as I have done and NOT
create a tripping hazard. Thank you for making that point Randy.
-Dan
Randy Hall wrote:
> Daniel Servatius wrote:
> > But I used that monofilament line that sort of flouresces in the
> > sunlight (easy to spot).
> My personal concerns about monofilament is a) the possibility
> of wildlife getting tangled in it, or b) the possibility of people
> running through the woods off trail (like us orienteers) tripping
> over it (this has happened to me with steel wire in the past twice
> while orienteering). I think I'll experiment with out of the way
> hiding places for now and see how it goes :-)
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[L-USA] Re: box placement, etc.
From: erik/susan davis (davisarc@wcvt.com) |
Date: 1999-01-03 21:46:40 UTC-08:00
Responding to the question of suspending a letterbox with monofilament,
inside something which (I assume) one can't reach to the bottom of...
An anecdote from the past, if you'll pardon the diversion...
Back in the mid 60's, my best friend and I were finishing high school,
and were planning grand life schemes, and decided, one night, to make a
sort of "brotherhood pledge" about these schemes, that we would come
back to in a couple of years. Well, we needed to assure ourselves that
it would be available to us no matter what happened (i.e., it had to
survive through flood, fire, family moves, etc.), so, we wrote and
signed this document, and sealed it in a glass cigar tube (like a test
tube), with cork and wax, and suspended it, by monofilament, under cover
of darkness one night, inside the pipe of a signpost on our town green.
Late one night a couple of years later, somewhat longer in hair and
scruffier in appearance, my friend decided to check on it, and was
standing on the seat of his motorcycle (this is about 1967,), having
pulled the sign off the top, peering down the pipe, when along comes a
cop (a former classmate of mine, trying to sound tough) in a cruiser.
"Young Man, what do you think you are doing?" says he. "Oh Officer, I'm
just checking on my time capsule" says my friend. Well, he was told in
no uncertain terms to put the sign back and leave.
Several days later my friend sneaked back to repeat the quest - the
capsule was gone! It had been there just a few nights before! Nothing
else was disturbed, and a flashlight showed that the capsuile had not
fallen down to the base of the post.
We tried to figure out what could possibly have happened, and finally,
concluded that the same cop probably suspected we were really hiding our
"stash" there, told his superiors about it, but, after recovering it,
was too chagrined to admit it, and so destroyed it.
Actualy, we never had a plan for retreiving the capsule, should the
monofilament indeed have failed and the capsule fallen to the base of
the post. I guess I'd be a bit concerned about a similar occurence
(minus the police involvement, hopefully), if a letterbox hunter didn't
quite get the knot right, etc. However, I do think it is a great concept
if it can be made fail-safe.
And, in the spirit of things past and present, I sent that friend a
letterbox kit for Christmas. So it goes full circle.
Erik Davis
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inside something which (I assume) one can't reach to the bottom of...
An anecdote from the past, if you'll pardon the diversion...
Back in the mid 60's, my best friend and I were finishing high school,
and were planning grand life schemes, and decided, one night, to make a
sort of "brotherhood pledge" about these schemes, that we would come
back to in a couple of years. Well, we needed to assure ourselves that
it would be available to us no matter what happened (i.e., it had to
survive through flood, fire, family moves, etc.), so, we wrote and
signed this document, and sealed it in a glass cigar tube (like a test
tube), with cork and wax, and suspended it, by monofilament, under cover
of darkness one night, inside the pipe of a signpost on our town green.
Late one night a couple of years later, somewhat longer in hair and
scruffier in appearance, my friend decided to check on it, and was
standing on the seat of his motorcycle (this is about 1967,), having
pulled the sign off the top, peering down the pipe, when along comes a
cop (a former classmate of mine, trying to sound tough) in a cruiser.
"Young Man, what do you think you are doing?" says he. "Oh Officer, I'm
just checking on my time capsule" says my friend. Well, he was told in
no uncertain terms to put the sign back and leave.
Several days later my friend sneaked back to repeat the quest - the
capsule was gone! It had been there just a few nights before! Nothing
else was disturbed, and a flashlight showed that the capsuile had not
fallen down to the base of the post.
We tried to figure out what could possibly have happened, and finally,
concluded that the same cop probably suspected we were really hiding our
"stash" there, told his superiors about it, but, after recovering it,
was too chagrined to admit it, and so destroyed it.
Actualy, we never had a plan for retreiving the capsule, should the
monofilament indeed have failed and the capsule fallen to the base of
the post. I guess I'd be a bit concerned about a similar occurence
(minus the police involvement, hopefully), if a letterbox hunter didn't
quite get the knot right, etc. However, I do think it is a great concept
if it can be made fail-safe.
And, in the spirit of things past and present, I sent that friend a
letterbox kit for Christmas. So it goes full circle.
Erik Davis
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