Sam's California Adventure

Let me tell you a little story by way of introduction. Most of you are probably familiar with Boxing Buddies. And most of you have probably seen the commercial where the dad takes his little daughter's monkey on a business trip with him. If you combine those two ideas you will have a pretty good understanding of how Sam the Lion was created. My recent trip to Sacramento (sans children) caused a little bit of sadness (understandably) on the part of the 6yo. Her solution (which I thought was brilliant) was to send Sam with me on the trip, with a promise from me that he would go everywhere I went and get his picture taken.

So...

What is a trip to CA without stopping at In-N-Out?

Sam wanted to pick oranges from the neighbor's tree...

... got cootied at the Meet n Greet (another post on that later)

...Ate at Ludy's BBQ in Woodland. If you are ever in the area, this place is a must. Yummy!

...wrangled Crocodiles...

... helped fly the plane home...(ps-I Love you, Southwest!)

...and finally tired himself out.

There are several obvious advantages to vacationing with a stuffed animal. You don't have to feed them, they never whine and you can stuff them in your backpack when they are a nuisance. They also represent a little piece of home that you can take with you everywhere and they remind you of your children when you miss them terribly. Thanks for coming along, Sam!

End of One Adventure

This post is about three months overdue! If you are not familiar with Teasel, our boxing buddy, now would be a good time to get acquainted. In August of last year, Teasel left us to begin an adventure that would take him far and wide. He returned to us over the summer with a burgeoning logbook and lots of stories to tell. Here is a brief summary of his travels.
He travelled to 9 different states, met at least 9 other boxing buddies, and got almost 200 stamp images of all kinds in his logbook! He went to parks and parties, bridges and churches, and one very special ultrasound!

These pictures are from his stay with Team Knorr.
Here he met Doyle and Toby, other BBs.
He hunted...
found...
planted...
picniced...
posed...
and examined.

Every one of his hosts did a fantastic job of writing notes in his logbook and including pictures to go along with the stamps. My favorite picture is of Teasel being carried by Shoebee (of HG and the Shoebee Crew fame) in a baby bjorn!

The girls have argued, quite emphatically, that Teasel is OUR boxing buddy and therefore he needs to stay home so that WE can take him letterboxing with US. It's hard to argue with that kind of logic, so our beloved Hedgie is ending his travels and will spend his free time honing his carving skills, helping with box maintenance, and foraging in the flower beds. He has confided to me that he is looking forward to more time in front of the fireplace and less time"scurrying about". Perhaps I will get him hooked on trading cards. I also have another surprise for him, but that will have to wait for another post.

Catching up with Teasel

The last time I wrote about our boxing buddy, Teasel the hedgehog, he was playing with Peanut Girl at Happy Gemini's house. That was way back in September. He has been getting around since then and doing more letterboxing than I have. Maybe that's why it has taken me this long to post about his travels--I am completely jealous! Of a stuffy! After he left HG's, he went to visit Questar right here in Illinois. Only they didn't stay in Illinois. They went on vacation to Florida. We got a postcard from him while he was there and this is what he wrote while lounging by the pool:
Nitrocat & Kittens,
I'm having lots of fun!! I've tasted real Florida orange juice, went swimming and found the "Sand Key Park" and "Save our Sea Turtles" LBs.
Love,
Teasel

Questar and her family were wonderful hosts and when I saw her at the Letterboxing Wedding event in Chicago, she gave me a wonderful surprise for my "Kittens" from Teasel--a Florida coloring book, little bag of authentic Florida sand and tiny seashells, and another postcard with a collage of pictures of Teasel on vacation. He met several other buddies and had lots of fun while he was with them.

After returning from Florida, Teasel headed to visit Kelsey's Kreations in New York. Over the holidays, things got a little crazy around here and I'm afraid I wasn't very good at keeping track of what he was doing. Since I know he is in good hands, I tend not to worry too much. Maybe I can fill in the gap sometime later.
He is currently in South Carolina with Threespoiledboxers. They took him on a trip to Chattanooga, TN. See what I mean by going to more places than me? I did get a picture from him while he was in Chat. They went to find a box near a special bridge and it had something to do with nuts. Sorry, a little fuzzy on the details. Maybe it was Walking on Walnuts?

His visit in Traveler's Rest is almost over and he will be heading to Idhunna's house in Indiana. I can't wait to see his logbook when he comes home! Maybe I should pack myself up into a little box with my stamp and logbook, and mail myself somewhere warm and with a high concentration of letterboxes. I might actually get to do some boxing then! Anybody want to volunteer to be my first host?

Who's My Daddy?

Wow. I go to bed last night and all heck breaks loose on Atlas Quest. I'm kinda glad I missed the melee.

But I want to post a couple of thoughts over here anyway. And some of it might be considered "blasphemous", which is why it's here and not on the boards.

Thought #1:

IT'S JUST A PIE CHART!!!!!!

Thought #2:

Who are Mark & Sue? Everyone keeps saying how much they revere them, but as far as I know, they haven't contributed to my letterboxing experience in any way. So, in order to answer that question, I spent some time on their blog. This is some of what I learned:

• They have alot of pinecone stamps carved by lots of other people.
• They must have lots of money, or leisure time, or both, in order to spend as much time out boxing as they do.
• They seem to want to encourage people getting together through the hobby of letterboxing.
• They have several completely distasteful posts about a Lady Prisspott that have nothing whatsoever to do with letterboxing.
• They talk with and about a lot of people that I've never heard of.

Thought #3:

How does my letterboxing experience fit with all of this?

• No, I don't hold LTCs, postals, virtuals and other non-traditional boxes on par with traditionals. In fact, my husband and I have discussed the fact that they really aren't letterboxing at all. The common theme is the hand carved stamp, and I just happen to do these other things with the same people that also letterbox and list them in the same place. In fact, I have actually gotten to know people through the non-traditionals in ways I never would out in the forest. When I box, I box alone.
• I do not have the money or the leisure time to letterbox as I would like. I have responsibilities--one of them being a child with special considerations who has a very difficult time outdoors.
• I learned about letterboxing from a friend. She read a magazine article about it. We both went and found the Smithsonian article and read it.
• The "mutant" letterboxing activity of Boxing Buddies has actually encouraged my children to go out and look for letterboxes more than anything else has.

Thought #4:

I don't care beans about the pie chart and the response to it. Until a person "walks a mile in [my] shoes", they have no business passing judgement on how I choose to spend my time. If the Pepe's want to encourage outdoor boxing, so be it. If they are disturbed by the trend in virtuals, etc, so be it. That is not going to change how I partake in letterboxing.

But I kept reading and read their following post as well. Now, that bothers me. That someone who has never met me, talked to me, or in any other way gotten to know me in the slightest would feel that they could give me a "fatherly" lecture perturbs me to no end. My father would never shake his finger at me~as it were~and tell me to "just get out there and box". Because he knows me and my situation. He and my Mom have however, on many occasions, babysat my children so that I could go out and box. My Dad has gone with me to hunt and plant boxes so that I could feel safe out in the woods alone. My Dad, and my entire family have humored me on family vacations so that I could pick up a few boxes along the way. My Dad has encouraged me that things will get easier as my kids get older. My Dad even helped me pick out my hiking boots. Mark Pepe is NOT my Dad.

The Way Letterboxing Should Be

Last weekend, I had the priviledge of meeting up with Questar and hunting some letterboxes with her. It was the perfect day filled with beautiful weather, great company and wonderful boxes. While stamping in a train themed box, a freight train went rumbling by less than 30 feet away, shaking the ground as it went. During our search for a box that mentions fire trucks in the clue, we saw and heard the engines come roaring out of the station. And a box dedicated to the victory of the soldiers and sailors during the war found us winning our own minor victory in sneaking past the construction workers and men painting doors to retrieve and replace the letterbox.
While the planters of those letterboxes could not guarantee that those additional elements would be in place every time someone came hunting, they did do a bang up job of placing them in way that could only add to the experience for their finders.
That is the inspiration that I hope is behind how and where I plant my boxes. I'm pretty sure that someone hunting for "The Tyger" isn't going to want to come across a real tiger in the woods. But hunting a tiger in reality would be a bit of a challenge, so did I create that with my clues and hiding spot? Am I taking them places that they would willingly go if there wasn't a letterbox involved? Am I helping them to see things that are interesting or beautiful or have some redeeming value outside of adding to their "F count"?
I'm sure I have not succeeded in this with every letterbox planted. But with every box found, fantastic or otherwise, I am adding to a mental list of "best practices" for planting. And that is the way it should be.


On a different note, the kittens and I decided to create our own "Fall Fesitval" yesterday to celebrate the beginning of harvest. (As I type, our combine is undergoing it's last tweaking before heading into the field. That means I am officially a farming widow once again. More on that topic later.) We took Little Bunny Foo Foo and PiWi Reese to the pumpkin patch for some gourds and other fun stuff. The girls picked out white pumpkins and drank fresh apple cider. I, on the other hand, swallowed a bug of unknown species and spent most of the time coughing.
We also made pumpkin stew for supper, baked apple, pumpkin and bat shaped sugar cookies, painted dried gourds, and made caramel dip for whatever we decided needed dipping. The chocolate frosted sugar cookies were especially yummy dipped in the caramel and more than made up for the accidental protein earlier.
What is your favorite benchmark, activity or otherwise Fall related, um, stuff?

Teasel's Mobile Home

On one of those days when housework was Oh So Not Appealing, and we couldn't quite make ourselves knuckle down to the schoolwork, the kittens and I decided to spice up Teasel's priority mail box. The following pictures are the end result of our efforts. Teasel was pleased. The kittens both giggled uncontrollably. And best of all, the laundry remained status quo. Bear in mind that I was taking photos down inside a box, which accounts for the distortion.

The first room is the Kitchen, or according to Teasel, the most important room in the house. The picture on the side of the fridge is artwork by his niece, and the phone number is his favorite carry-out place, Slugs R Us. The other picture was procured through Ancestry.com and is believed to be a long-lost Uncle. More research is needed to confirm the fact though. He also keeps a running grocery list. The curtains on the window were made and sent to him by his Mum. The plants are a blue Cranesbill which he took from cuttings in my garden. The stereo is a garage sale find (which explains it's size) and helps him to pass the time when he is not boxing. He particularly likes the Fresh Aire CDs from Mannheim Steamroller.


Next in line is the Living Room, where he can enjoy reruns of his favorite show on the Discovery Channel: Porcupines, Extreme Defenders. It is also where he keeps his pet tetra, Argon, and a few mementoes of his travels. The poster is a reminder that his American citizenship is getting closer all the time! The bureau is another garage sale find and holds his collection of rose petals and other more mundane household items. The plant is a banded arrowroot, or prayer plant, that folds up its leaves in the darkness.


As we move into the Office we can see the computer where Teasel spends lots of time reading clues and following the threads on the message boards. The pictures are of his family. Mom and Dad are in the green and blue frames, and his brother, Spoke, is in the yellow frame. His backpack is all ready to go and he has a flashlight handy for those midnight trips to the fridge. The plant is a division of the Mother-in-Law's Tongue that everyone in my family now has at least one piece of. The art print, of course, reminds him of his childhood home in England.


The last room is the Den, complete with overstuffed chair (leather simply isn't practical for a hedgehog), reading lamp and his favorite books. The list of books includes: Watership Down (c'mon, don't tell me you don't know about Yona!), Hedgie, O Slug-a-Moon and Other Songs, and The Quill, a quarterly hedgehog newsletter. The framed collage on the wall is from Beatrix Potter's lovely story about Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle, one of Teasel's spinster Aunts on his father's side of the family.

Agreeably, the floor is not very exciting, but it does still tell us a little bit about him. The green rug is a souvenir from his trip to Macchu Pichu in Peru, while the blue striped monstrosity is yet another garage sale find that I cannot prevail upon him to get rid of for all the bulk Salami at Sam’s Club. But for all of his stubbornness, he is good at keeping in touch, as the letters on the floor will tell. He uses his laptop while in transit, when he does not have access to electricity (all of his other appliances run on solar battery packs, except the refrigerator, which is kerosene). The newspaper is actually a back issue of The Herbal Companion, which he stocks up on and saves for trips as a special treat.

We hope that you have enjoyed this little tour of Teasel's pad. The author fully acknowledges that this post is in complete rebellion against the fact that I am stuck in the house on a quintessentially beautiful day cleaning my desk (well, that's the premise at least) when I'd rather be out in the woods looking for letterboxes, fuzzy caterpillars, tree fungus or anything else even remotely more interesting than piles of empty CD cases (in our house, that has taken the place of socks without matches), old catalogues and "Oh, Look. Another medical bill that was supposed to be paid weeks ago."
Raspberries.

Teasel Writes Home

Dear Nitrocat,
Sorry I haven't written sooner but it's a lot of work to hide from the giant Peanut Girl. When I first got here we went letterboxing most of the weekend. I have found a whole bunch of letterboxes in the wild and in PLB's too. There are some other buddies here for me to play with and plenty of stamping to do. (Please see the pics attached) Today we played hide and seek in the pile of PLB's from the weekend mail. It was fun until giant Peanut Girl tried to hide too. Did you see the pic of my logbook? I can't believe how many pages I've filled. I'm having a great time and I can't wait to show you all my adventures. I hope you guys are well and I miss you a lot.
Love Always,
Teasel xoxoxo



Dear Teasel,
I am so glad that you are having a good time and have lots to keep you busy. Don't worry about Peanut Girl too much. She probably just wants to love on you a little and that can't be as bad as what the cats here at home try to do to you! You know how to defend yourself from predators of all shapes and sizes, but try to be a gentleman whenever possible.
Your logbook looks fantastic. Now aren't you glad we stayed up so late adding all of those extra pages? I can't wait for you to come home and tell me all about your adventures.
Did you manage to paw off the cootie you took with you? The girls and I were discussing it and they were wondering, would a cootie passed off by a boxing buddy be called a "bootie" or a "cuddle"?
I plan to post pictures of your den in the next day or so. That way, everyone can see your sweet home away from home.
Be good and try not to eat up all of Happy Gemini's grocery budget. We'll talk to you soon!
Love and prickles,
Nitrocat and Kittens

Teasel the Hedgehog

After practically an all-night session (that's what happens when you are working with nocturnal stuffies), our first boxing buddy is nearly ready. Let me introduce you: This is Teasel the Hedgehog. He was named after the dramatic looking weed with the spiny seed heads. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teasel He is completely lovable and only causes trouble occasionally; mostly when he forgets to wipe his paws or gets things caught in his prickles. He loves to forage through the leaf litter in the woods and in doing that he accidentally found his first letterbox. He has been "stuck on it" ever since. Because he digs very gently, so as not to mush the grubs he is looking for, he is a very good helper when it comes to hunting letterboxes. Fat worms, slugs and grubs are his

first choice when it comes to food, but he can be persuaded to eat the occasional mosquito; although he says they taste like eating kleenex. For the most part he has adapted to our diurnal lifestyle, but if he comes to your house, don't be surprised if you find him rummaging in the fridge for bologna in the middle of the night.

He wanted to make his own logbook, so I stayed up with him last night until he was satisfied with how it turned out. He has been practicing some carving and finished his sig stamp in the wee hours this morning. I am quite proud of him. He didn't complain once even though I couldn't find the handle for my exacto knife for him and all I had was PZ Kut. He says he prefers the Speedy Stamp.

I will tell you that he is not very brave. At the first sign of danger (perceived or otherwise) he rolls up into a ball and won't come out until he thinks it is completely safe. He can be quite stubborn about it. Moppett is the absolute sweetest cat and I am sure she was just investigating a remnant of olive loaf he missed.

Teasel's family is originally from Europe. His parents and siblings were captured along with him one evening on the English countryside. They were stuffed in windowless crates and shipped overseas. We discovered him in a shop window several years back and rescued him immediately. Through a service that works to reunite families that have been separated, we have heard that one of his brothers is part of a traveling animal education program. He visits schools and day care centers along with the other animals in the program to help children learn about being good pet owners. Recently, we also received word from his parents. They are well and living with a retired gentleman on the east coast where they help him by patrolling his garden at night. We can only hope that the others are also okay and being looked after.

If you would like to host Teasel and take him letterboxing in your part of the world, he would love to visit. Just contact me here or through AQ mail and we will set it up. He will also be listed on AQ as an "other" letterbox so that you can log him as a find. (Note: I changed him to a postal box so that I could add him to the tracker I created)

5 year old discoveries

This is what I get for showing the 5 year old what happens when you add bubble bath to the whirlpool tub and turn the jets on.
Now I'm going to have to share.

On a more letterboxing note: we have begun the creation of our very first boxing buddy. His stamp and logbook with be finished tonight and his photo shoot should be complete tomorrow. I will post an introducion and he should be ready to travel on Monday!

Cootiepalooza!!

It all started with the rain yesterday. Frankie the Moose and Tweeter conspired together and cootied Pinky Poo. She promised revenge. Then with another day of rain today, everyone was getting a little punchy and Pinky found my stash of cooties left over from the gathering in Columbus, Ohio. Before you knew what was happening there were cooties flying everywhere, the carving supplies had been pulled out and there was very little actual stamping taking place. It looked more like the melee of a grade school cafeteria food fight.
I pulled out the whistle and eventually brought the chaos to a halt. We decided that since they were all over the place anyway, we might as well have our own cootie event right then and there. With a little organization and cooperation, all the buddies were able to stamp about seventeen cooties a piece. I threw in an event stamp to finish things off and scooted the buddies upstairs for a nap so that I could clean up the mess.
I'm not sure what I'll do if it rains again tomorrow. I'm fresh out of ideas!

Hostess with the Mostest

Playing hostess to three separate boxing buddies can keep you quite busy, we are discovering! The girls are having a great time and we are all enjoying planning special things for the buddies to do. Even my two nephews have gotten involved. So we're not complaining, but...
Last Friday on the trail we ended up with six logbooks between us, and the stamping got to be really insane! And did I mention we had the crazy puppy with us too? We ended up paring it down to just the nephews' two logbooks and all the sig stamps. We stamped everyone into the letterboxes and then scanned and pasted the images into all of the rest of the logbooks after we got home. That worked. At least with that many buddies, each of the kids had someone to pair up with. It kept them engaged in the letterboxing and focused on what we were doing instead of getting bored 100 feet from the car. Which is a beautiful thing.
The rain this morning kept us all in, which meant alot of cootie mischief going on. I'm not sure what I'll do with all of them if it rains again tomorrow. Two kids, two cats, a puppy, a poodle, a bat and a moose can be a bit much! ;)

Hills and Hurdles

My two girls have never liked letterboxing. They don't go willingly and it is always Too Hot, Too Cold, Too Windy, Too Sunny, Too Far, Too Boring, etc. On top of the complaining is the reality that my oldest has Sensory Integration Disorder. Which means, among other things, that the light touch from leaves as she passes on the trail feels like thorns to her.
But then the Boxing Buddies arrived. Tweeter the bat for the 8yo who loves bats and wants to be a vet, Pinky Poo the poodle for the 5yo pink princess supreme, and Frankie the Moose for Mom just because. And last night when I suggested we take the buddies letterboxing today, there was no hesitation or murmurings. And when we came upon that monster slippery hill this morning, there was no griping or tears. And when the mosquitoes tried to stamp their signatures on us, there was no whimpering.
And we had a blast, found 5 out of 5 letterboxes, and discovered a little hot dog stand with the best Pina Colada shakes I've ever had.
I still can't believe how well it went. When I think about that hill, I realize that it wasn't the only hurdle that was crossed successfully today. I am immensely proud of my girls! They are the best letterboxing buddies I could ever have. Where are we going tomorrow?

Letterboxes: 33 Laundry: 1

Beating the Heat

In order to get a few boxes before the heat and humidity became unbearable, Frankie the Moose and I left the house this morning at 5:20! On a Saturday!!
But it was worth it. Here is a list of some of the things we saw:
Little Blue Heron
Snowy Egret
Blue Jay
Indigo Bunting (lots of blue today!)
Rabbits everywhere!
White Tailed Deer
Chipmunks
At least six different kinds of "dragonfly"
Lost count on the butterflies
Wild Monarda, Black-eyed Susan, Joe Pye Weed, and Spiderwort

The disadvantage to being on the trails so early is that you get to clear all the spiderwebs for everyone else. We found four out of five boxes and were back home by 9:15. I took some pictures and they will probably be on Frankie's blog later. http://frankiethemoose.blogspot.com

Letterboxes: 25 Laundry: 1

Our First Buddy!

Boxing Buddy Frankie the Moose arrived today! This is our first experience hosting a boxing buddy and I was a little nervous. But when Frankie arrived, we hit it off right away and I felt much more at ease. We have a lot planned this month, but it is ridiculously hot and humid today. So we spent the afternoon exchanging PTs and discussing plans. We are still awaiting Pinky Poo and Tweeter. Hopefully they will be here by the weekend.
On the down side, the vacuuming and laundry screamed loud enough this morning to wake me up. I had no choice but to attend to them. You can't win them all!

Letterboxes :22 Laundry :1