I *think* I've seen folks on the group who have a sideline of carving nice
stamps for boxes other than their own, so I thought I'd give it a try and put
out a post.

I've been looking for what seems like forever for places in this neck of the
woods to plant a box or three that would be a good hard physical challenge.
And we've come up with a place where, altho it's not exactly going to be like
climbing Mount Everest, it's the best we've come up with to date. Not much
actual climbing, but it should be more of a hike than most folks around here see
in a day at least. It might even involve squishing thru a bit of wet, oh
horrors. :-)

It'll take five stamps for the various features: 2 waterfalls (1 manmade, 1
natural), 1 artesian well, 1 for the ruins of an old nursery, and one for the
name of the place -- letters, ugh, I hate doing letters. There will others, 1
for the two railroads involved, 1 of a woodpecker, 1 of poverty oat grass,
and 1 for a dog involved [1], but I think that I can do those myself if I can
find a good artist to make the others.

I'm the best carver of our group and that ain't exactly sayin' much. Being a
senior citizen who's close to blind (literally) and having arthritic hands,
my carving ability is nil. And it's not going to get any better. Normally,
for our boxes, we can "get by" with my carving ability. But given that these
boxes will (hopefully) be much more of a challenge, I was thinking of paying
someone to design and carve some nice stamps -- stamps that'd be worth finding at
the end of the haul. Sure, in many ways, it's all about the hike...... :-)
.....but well designed and carved stamps at the end would be really nice too
for once.

My other option is to have NW Stamps make a commercial stamp from drawings I
do, but I wanted to try this route first because my hands aren't even often
all that good for drawing anymore.

If anyone has stamp carving as a sideline and is interested, please contact
me privately.

Thanks!

Pippi

[1] The dog will be a bonus stamp. This area is frequently hiked by a
extremely nice slim gray-haired gentleman who travels with a dark short-haired
hound-dawg type of dog with the most beautiful brindle head I've ever seen. If any
boxer meets them and emails us the name of the dog, we'll send the stamp on
card stock thru the mail to them. He and his son know I was out scouting
potential box locations that day, but he doesn't have the foggiest idea that
there'll be a bonus stamp for his dog's name. :-)

He knows the Lemont area blindfolded and gave me some great ideas for future
quarry stamps, I&M Canal historical stamps, etc., in that area. A really
nice cowboy sort of guy, who has neither the time nor the patience for
letterboxing himself, but folks are welcome to take up a spot at the campfire, rest
their feet a bit and talk a spell. (And boy, I definitely needed to rest my feet
a bit that day.)



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