Our Thoughts: Huffing

Now, before you get too excited, we're not talking about anything illicit or illegal. We're talking about a way in which you can improve your stamping image.

Some letterboxers use ink pads. Others use colored markers (Marvy). Either way, sometimes, particularly when it's hot outside, the ink will start to dry before you're ready to stamp. Never fear...huffing is here. Go ahead and ink or color your stamp. Then, holding the stamp in your cupped hands, breathe on it like you would a window in the wintertime. There's enough moisture in your breath that it puts life back into the inked stamp and it's ready for use. We've even "huffed" a stamp when we had neither ink or markers... and it worked just fine. This is a nice tip that was passed to us by "Whiz Gee" and we're passing it on to you. Hope this helps you in the future, particularly when you don't have or have forgotten your inks.

Our Thoughts: Recording Finds

Today was kinda a drizzly day so we decided to go do some "box maintenance". We have five boxes planted not too far from our home and it had been reported to us that one was missing. We loved the stamp that we had put in and knew that it was hidden in a place not frequently visited by crowds. So we went to check.

Low and behold, the box was there. WHEW!!! But we decided to move it to a little easier location. As we checked inside, making sure the stamp was okay and that there was still room in the logbook, we noticed that many people had visited it but according to both websites...no one had recorded finding it. As we checked the other boxes, we discovered the same thing had happened. This got us to wondering if others were experiencing this same "problem". Reading that someone found our box is important to us. We have some in other states that we can't easily check on and knowing that someone found it and that it's either okay or not okay is benefical to us. This led us to thinking that perhaps "newbies" didn't know about recording their finds.

It doesn't take very long to record the information (unless, of course, you allow things to pile up). We always check (about once every couple of weeks) to see the status of our boxes. Either website easily explains how to record a find.

Bottom line...Would you please record your finds AND your attempts? And also let the owner know if the box is in need of repairs or even missing. I know two letterboxers that would greatly appreciate this small task. Thanks!!!

Our Thoughts: Postals & Patience

One of the things we have discovered in dealing with postals is....you have to have patience. If you expect boxes to move quickly, you're going to be disappointed and your patience will be tried.

Being a retired teacher of 30 years and having to be punctual with all the aspects of handling a classroom...this has been a great lesson for me. I have found myself edgy... waiting to receive the "next box". Because it has always been important to me to "send that report off on time"... "get those grade cards ready promptly"..."march those children to the library at our scheduled time"....I've had a little difficulty understanding why others don't move their boxes as quickly as we do. It's frustrating to us to not be able to "send the box" on to the next receipient in a timely manner. We start feeling that it's going to "make us look bad" if we don't move things on. We've had a great mentor..."Littlemonkey" who has taught and shared a lot with us. For that, we are grateful.

Knowing all of this, we've had to sit back and assess the situation and try to understand that not all persons handle things in the same way that we do. So what's the lesson in all of this? Patience is a MUST with postals. If this is a character trait that you can't deal with...then postals are probably not for you. If you think you can overcome this quirky thing and work on your patience...then you'll have great fun.

The one cool thing about postals is that you DO reach out to other parts of our country and meet people that you might not normally run into. It takes you "out of your box" and opens your eyes to just another great thing about letterboxing.

Have fun and get involved !!!

Our Thoughts: Quisps

We recently discovered another new aspect of Letterboxing....Quisps!!! Bet you're wondering what on earth they are. So were we when we found our first.

We recently participated in a Postal Ring. One of the few maintenance items is to take off the old address label in order to place the new one on. While doing this, we notice that our's had been taped to a plain sheet of paper and it felt a little bulky underneath. Wayne got out his Xacto knife and trimmed away... Low and behold, underneath we found the sweetest stamped puppy called "Buddy". On the back was his name, the owner's name and date. We had no idea until we emailed the owner as to what it's purpose was.

Quisps are just another little stamped treasure that you find while letterboxing. The person who finds it, logs it in as found, keeps it and can replace it with another if they so choose. This got us excited. Another "keep us busy" type of thing to do in the winter months when it's too cold, or at least for us, to go out hiking and looking for traditional boxes...

That's it... just wanted to share