To me, it's certainly not necessary, but it's incredibly enjoyable to see a
situation where it all comes together in one spiffs and total package.

1. The placer picked a spot whose beauty or interest either stands on it's
own merits or the area holds a special spot in the placer's heart for some
reason;

2. As bad an artist as they may be, the placer took the time and
determination to make the stamp. I don't really see a difference, however, between an
artist who makes their own drawing but has the stamp made commercially from that
drawing, and someone who actually does their own carving, but I don't know
what the feeling is in general amongst Americans;

3. The stamp includes the placename or event somewhere on it (this doesn't
seem to be important to Americans from what we've seen so far so I've only done
it for a very few of my stamps but I'm going to do it from now on because I
still prefer it myself);

4. The stamp image somehow relates to it's placement;

5. There's something either mentally challenging, physically challenging, or
adrenalin-rushing about finding the box. Andrenalin-rushing, for example,
being that great feeling that comes from devising how to snag a box and return a
box in a crowded urban environment, saying "let's do it!", and then actually
pulling it off. (I prefer the challenge to be related to the box placement
-- I don't care for having to solve riddles or whatnot that aren't related to
where the box is placed or aren't related to the subject of the box -- but
that's purely personal preference.)

6. And one item that Keith would definitely add -- If people are finding
boxes, those same people should also be placing at least one or two boxes of
their own. Keith sees it as a total package activity -- as do I albeit a little
less so, but not that much less so. :-)

Now, do I expect boxes to meet all my goals? Of course not. Our own boxes
don't. :-)

Keith & I don't live to letterbox, we do letterboxing as we're doing other
things along with it, whether it's photography, drawing, birding, things related
to botany, camping, getting an education about some interesting subject,
picnicking or doing something romantic, etc. So a lot of times Number 5 up there
never really has a place in our plans anyway.

But it's still incredible when it can all come together. I guess I see
letterboxing as being for hunters and for artists and for storytellers (hunting
artistic storytellers? artistic storytelling hunters? :-) ). And when one gets
right down to the inner soul of a person, everyone is a hunter and everyone is
an artist and everyone is a storyteller. Everyone. No matter how much
society, or the education system, etc. has tried to convince us otherwise.

And now I'm off to Montana for a couple of days, and lb.org doesn't seem to
have any boxes listed for eastern Montana....................

And all of the above is just my plug nickel's worth,

Pippi




[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

I hesitate to join in this regularly recurring theme but decided to share a thought that came to me when I checked my emails this morning after checking the news on line ~ Whether you prefer handcarved, or store bought; whether you prefer challenging hikes or drivebys; whether you prefer hand bound log books or spiral notebooks from the dime store; whether you want clues in verse, riddle or with very simple directtions ~ each and every one of us involved with letterboxing should be giving thanks today and every day that our lives are such that we have the luxury of complaining about how we play a game. Many in this world would love to have that worry.

Whatever you choose to celebrate (or not) at this time of year, I wish for you health and happiness.

~ Memlili



__________________________________________________
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[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Is Eastern Montana going to have some boxes when you leave there?

Jan of Team Little Dog
--- In letterbox-usa@yahoogroups.com, CountdownTo55@a... wrote:
> And now I'm off to Montana for a couple of days, and lb.org doesn't
seem to
> have any boxes listed for eastern
Montana....................
>
> And all of the above is just my plug nickel's worth,
>
> Pippi
>
>
>
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

--- In letterbox-usa@yahoogroups.com, "Jan" wrote:
>
> Is Eastern Montana going to have some boxes when you leave there?
>
> Jan of Team Little Dog

Nope. I don't know any boxers who might live in eastern Montana to
contact them.

We believe in keeping track of our boxes from a maintenance
standpoint. If someone should contact us that one of our boxes is
possibly missing, or contact us to say that one of our boxes needs
any sort of first aid, we want to have the boxes placed close enough
to be able to get out to it within a day or two. Just a personal
preference of ours -- not because our boxes are our "babies" or any
such slush, but just because we'd prefer that if people come from any
sort of distance to find boxes, there really is a box there in good
condition to find.

If it were a situation like Mr. B.F. Gates, where the find was a few
billion dollars of Egyptian treasure, where there's generally a
winner-take-all mentality to the hunt, I'd say hey, if it's there
when ya get there, it's there. If someone got there before you,
tough. :-) But letterboxes are supposed to stay put.

When we move, we either pull up our boxes or we find a local boxer
willing to adopt them. And altho we know folks in Montana, we don't
know anyone who boxes who might want to adopt a few boxes. There's
beautiful territory for hiding boxes however in that neck of the
woods.

Pippi

I have planted many boxes far from home. I feel that
seeding an area with few boxes is an important way
of encouraging future letterboxers. I always try to
make a special efforts with these long distance plants
to hide them in such a way that they are very unlikely
to go missing. I always try to keep the information
current on my clue page, based on good contact
placer reports.

In addition, I have found that I have made many new
friends via my out of state boxes. Folks who live in
states with slim pickins are very pleased to have a
visitor leave a box behind for them to find. I think it's
safe to say that my annual visits to Nebraska
are eagerly awaited by Scott Redd, an Omaha boxer.
There are so few letterboxes in his area that I feel
duty bound to leave a box for him to find!

When I get a report that one has disappeard,
is missing a stamp or a book needs replacing, I will
ask if the person writing me is local to that box.
Many times, I have had kind offers to do the required
first aid for me. I send the replacement parts and a
good samaritan does the rest. Viva Random Acts of
Letterboxing Kindness! Funhog

> >
> > Is Eastern Montana going to have some boxes when you leave there?
> >
> > Jan of Team Little Dog
>
> Nope. I don't know any boxers who might live in eastern Montana to
> contact them.
>
> Pippi

I second Funhog's and Don's comments regarding placing letterboxes
far away from home. Many times we visit areas that have very few or
no letterboxes whatsoever and like to 'seed' an area when possible
(or leave treats for those 'lonely' letterboxers in any area lacking
letterboxes). As we're the types of folks who explore a region we
visit even if it doesn't contain any letterboxes, we like to share
our adventures with future visitors and perhaps introduce a few of
the locals to this 'cool' hobby. We recently placed 4 boxes in a
country we frequent every 5 years or so although we have 'contacts'
on the ground who may be able to help out with the maintenance, if
necessary. If the box goes missing, we just annotate that in the
clues. We also try to place the boxes in cool or historic places so
even if the box happens to go missing, folks get to experience
something interesting they otherwise would never have visited or
known about had it not been for letterboxing.

Ditto for getting to 'virtually' meet so many cool people through
our long distance 'orphaned' letterboxes out there. Our experience
over the past couple of years is that we've developed many great
friendships with folks from around the world since we've planted
letterboxes in various regions around the country (& now overseas,
recently, as well).

dvn2r ckr