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Lost: interest in hobby, help!
Board: Stupider Questions About Letterboxing
Aug 1, 2010 6:53am
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Sad to say, it seems I have lost my passion/obsession with letterboxing lately. Several factors seem to be contributing to this: a glut of crappy store-bought-stamp boxes with terrible clues new to the area, boxing with a overly dramatic 5 year old, the hot weather, a few of my own boxes getting geo-trashed or going missing.

I still log on to AQ everyday. What can I do to get that crazy look back in my eyes when I print clues? Am I just waiting for better weather and back-to-school?

Karen
Re: Lost: interest in hobby, help!
Board: Stupider Questions About Letterboxing
Reply to: #533173 by The 3 Foragers
Aug 1, 2010 7:00am
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Postals, LTCs? Just until the weather cools off and you feel better about maybe planting better boxes to show them how its done, or have a get together to give some ideas, tips, and inspiration?
I have the same problem right now with the weather, an unexcited 7 year old, and a sea of new litterboxers.
Re: Lost: interest in hobby, help!
Board: Stupider Questions About Letterboxing
Reply to: #533173 by The 3 Foragers
Aug 1, 2010 7:06am
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My guess is you're saturated. You've found over 600 boxes in just over a year. That's a LOT of boxing!

Take a break. Take an entire month off, and look for some real challenges to tackle when you come back - long hikes, mysteries, etc. Leave the thespian at home and take a friend instead.

You live in an area that has an abundance of boxes. Where boxes are more scarce, it really is a treat to get out once or twice a month for a good hunt.
Re: Lost: interest in hobby, help!
Board: Stupider Questions About Letterboxing
Reply to: #533173 by The 3 Foragers
Aug 1, 2010 7:28am
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The heat has been awful..... but we LOVE your boxes! Take a break if you need to, and come back soon!
Re: Lost: interest in hobby, help!
Board: Stupider Questions About Letterboxing
Reply to: #533173 by The 3 Foragers
Aug 1, 2010 7:33am
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I kind of went through that last year. I box with my family and there are six of us. It became a fight to get everyone willing to go.

Some ideas that might help:

1) focus on finding stamps by either carvers whose work you really admire, or by people here on AQ that you like and respect (this might be harder for you since you have a lot more finds than I do).

2) Try a different aspect of letterboxing. I know you do some ltc's, but maybe doing postals or more ltc swaps would help. We were in NY and there were so many boxes to find, but we've just moved to Louisiana where there are less boxes and now I find I'm brimming with ideas for boxes to plant and my enthusiasm is much higher again.

3) I know you carve and plant wild plants that can be foraged. Maybe you need to branch out and carve (and plant) something different.

4) take a small break. Continue to read the boards though.

((hugs))
dancing pecan
Re: Lost: interest in hobby, help!
Board: Stupider Questions About Letterboxing
Reply to: #533173 by The 3 Foragers
Aug 1, 2010 7:35am
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I know exactly what you are saying. My issue is that there are not a lot of boxers where I live so the boxes I plant have been sitting there for months without a hit. And there are not many boxes nearby to go find because there are few boxers. I do the same as you and visit AQ every day, hoping for a hit. I carve every day, creating more and more boxes, with no place to hide them and nobody to find them when I do. It's very disheartening!

BUT, I live for vacations when I can use my explorer's tools and plant boxes in newly discovered lands. I may start looking for planters who need handcarved stamps... and have a place to plant them.
Re: Lost: interest in hobby, help!
Board: Stupider Questions About Letterboxing
Reply to: #533188 by Yumgirl
Aug 1, 2010 7:46am
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OMG, send your boxes to me! LOL! I have so many ideas in my head for plants, but my carving ability is little to nil, so I don't do them. I'd love to get with someone who likes to carve and combine my ideas with their carves to get some boxes out there.

I have the same problems as already stated. Not a lot of boxers in this area, altho I am trying to rectify that; and my 11 year old has lost interest. So, I have to drag him around, listening to his "attitude" the whole time.
Re: Lost: interest in hobby, help!
Board: Stupider Questions About Letterboxing
Reply to: #533191 by Colorful Caterpillars
Aug 1, 2010 7:56am
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Send me your ideas and I'll see what I can do. I love to carve, but the places to hide here are kind-of limited because all the parks and open areas are well manicured and all the parks that are wild are VERY wild. Plus, why plant when it could be months/years before someone looks?
Re: Lost: interest in hobby, help!
Board: Stupider Questions About Letterboxing
Reply to: #533173 by The 3 Foragers
Aug 1, 2010 8:06am
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I've done very little boxing in the summer. Too hot, muggy, and buggy! And taking kids can at times suck all the fun out of it. Quite frankly, I do a lot of my boxing alone to escape the kids! Like this morning - I went when everyone was still asleep.
Re: Lost: interest in hobby, help!
Board: Stupider Questions About Letterboxing
Reply to: #533173 by The 3 Foragers
Aug 1, 2010 8:49am
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Being disenchanted at times will not make you less of a letterboxer. If you take a break, have no fear... you WILL be pulled back into the letterboxing vortex.

I think many of us have walked away for a while, not because we don't love letterboxing, but because it's just not a good time. I've had to redefine how I letterbox many times, because when I started I had one toddler, and now I have four kids (youngest is 2). Kids can make it difficult, sometimes not worth the fight. At times like these, I don't worry about quantity, I focus on what will be enjoyable and memorable.

-Quiet Place
Re: Lost: interest in hobby, help!
Board: Stupider Questions About Letterboxing
Reply to: #533173 by The 3 Foragers
Aug 1, 2010 9:18am
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Just having a whining 5 year old was enough to burn me out. I took a break for a few months, then when I got out I went with friends I found on AQ insted of with my family or alone. then it got to the point my family were begging me to take them with me and we are all good now. Funny, 6 months ago my 5 year old was begging me to take her to a nature trail where we don't have to find a box. so I did that, we walked, taking any direction she wanted and quit when she was done... I think it helped her start to enjoy being out again, she didn't need the prize at the end of the trail, the trail was her prize. What a good feeling, after all that what this was all about to start with.
Re: Lost: interest in hobby, help!
Board: Stupider Questions About Letterboxing
Reply to: #533202 by SITE Sleuths
Aug 1, 2010 9:49am
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You know, SS, the Foragers have a blue diamond box in our area. Maybe what they need is a road trip to find it and a gathering to give them some good old Michigan hospitality?

p
Re: Lost: interest in hobby, help!
Board: Stupider Questions About Letterboxing
Reply to: #533192 by Yumgirl
Aug 1, 2010 11:53am
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why plant when it could be months/years before someone looks?

Because that is the way to get more boxers in your area. When I started planting, there was one other boxer in Christchurch, and she wasn't very active because she had already found all the boxes in the area. That was it.

Now, there are 4 active boxers besides myself in the area. When people discover boxing, they look around and find enough boxes to get hooked. I still do most of the planting, but there have been a handful of plants for me to find from the new boxers.
Re: Lost: interest in hobby, help!
Board: Stupider Questions About Letterboxing
Reply to: #533225 by 55 Steps
Aug 1, 2010 12:04pm
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If you plant them they will come. We have the same situation in Boise and are doing everything in our power to keep our new boxers active and engaged. We are also thrilled when we have out of town boxer’s visit. Keep your chin up and keep planting. Eventually keeping self motivated will pay off.
Blackvelvetrav
Re: Lost: interest in hobby, help!
Board: Stupider Questions About Letterboxing
Reply to: #533173 by The 3 Foragers
Aug 1, 2010 12:28pm
Thread (disabled) Board
A tip that might help is simply do not find boxes that include a store bought stamp. Postals and LTCs are great, if you want to take some time off from traditional letterboxing. I will tell you, the best carves I've seen are not from traditional boxes-- they are from postals and LTCs!!!
Re: Lost: interest in hobby, help!
Board: Stupider Questions About Letterboxing
Reply to: #533228 by Blackvelvetrav
Aug 1, 2010 1:12pm
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If you plant them they will come.

They may not come a lot, though. I've planted zillions of boxes around here, and we still only have a handful of boxers in this area.

Besides the popularity of boxing in a particular area, there's also the driving through potential. We have some here, in that Tallahassee is on I-10 so anyone from points W and NW heading to DisneyWorld by car tends to come by here. Of course, they rarely stop to letterbox, and if they do it's only a drive-by or two right near the Interstate. Still, it's better than being in Alaska.
Re: Lost: interest in hobby, help!
Board: Stupider Questions About Letterboxing
Reply to: #533173 by The 3 Foragers
Aug 1, 2010 6:40pm
Thread (disabled) Board
My grandkids were so excited about letterboxing at first; but, after a while they got bored with the time it took for everyone to stamp into the logbook, date it, sign their name, then stamp their own logbook with the LB stamp etc. If I had it to do over I would do like some other boxing families have done. I'd have one family logbook to stamp in, and a family stamp for the letterbox logbook. If some of the kids wanted to have their own signature stamp they could quickly stamp in the letterbox logbook with their family. This would cut down the wait time at each letterbox find. The hunt is their favorite part. I hope this helps. I'd like to hear other ideas you letterboxers might like to share, that have worked for you.
Re: Lost: interest in hobby, help!
Board: Stupider Questions About Letterboxing
Reply to: #533318 by Pet Lover
Aug 1, 2010 6:54pm
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Stamping in with just one stamp still takes too long for SWMBO. In fact, sometimes she'd rather not be bothered with actually finding the box, and wanders off to explore the area that the box has brought us to. It really is all about getting outdoors and visiting new places for her.

We have geocaching, we have waymarking, and we have letterboxing, and each appeals to people for various reasons. How about an entirely new type of hunt, in which finds are logged by simply snapping a photo of the contents of the box? Open the box, click, close box, rehide, move on. No log book at all of your own; it's all saved on the memory card in your camera. No log book at all in the box, you just send the pic to the owner to log the find online. Paperless.

The only item inside the box would be something unique, preferably hand-made, preferably themed to be appropriate for the location. Preferably impervious to water damage, although a watertight container would still be good to keep it looking nice.
Re: Lost: interest in hobby, help!
Board: Stupider Questions About Letterboxing
Reply to: #533173 by The 3 Foragers
Aug 1, 2010 6:56pm
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I've kinda been going through that myself... not really for any particular reason other than my interests in hobbies have always ebbed-and-flowed. I think the primary instigator may have been that my neck and wrist don't let me carve as much anymore, but really there's so many other things I could have been doing to still enjoy the hobby. Before I knew it, almost a year had gone by since I last looked for a box!! Sure, I logged in here, replied to messages that I needed to, but for a while LBing took a backseat to some other hobbies I participate in. Suddenly, last weekend I couldn't stand it anymore and had to drag hubby out to look for one... we didn't find it, but I enjoyed the experience and finding a new park.

Taking time off is okay; think of it like a vacation... if the hobby really excited you - which it sounds and looks like it did - you will come to miss it and will pick it up again when you're ready... and we'll still be here when you get back! ;)

HPL
Re: Lost: interest in hobby, help!
Board: Stupider Questions About Letterboxing
Reply to: #533225 by 55 Steps
Aug 1, 2010 6:59pm
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I remember some of your early days; I'm so glad that you are seeing more activity in your area!!

HPL
Re: Lost: interest in hobby, help!
Board: Stupider Questions About Letterboxing
Reply to: #533178 by Fiddleheads
Aug 1, 2010 8:03pm
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You've found over 600 boxes in just over a year. That's a LOT of boxing!

I didn't even look at that, that is quite a bit!
Re: Lost: interest in hobby, help!
Board: Stupider Questions About Letterboxing
Reply to: #533173 by The 3 Foragers
Aug 2, 2010 4:44am
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Am I just waiting for better weather and back-to-school?

Could well be.
Want something to play with while you wait?
McBrae's Scrapbook

Mwahahaha

Sheba