think positive
and maybe some will survive

fingers crossed
Dixie Darlin'
Taylorsville NC

you keep your ears and eyes open. you remember things

Thanks Tiggs,
Probably the answer I was looking for was "hang in there. You'll get a chance."
I've been in this hobby since July. I have carved a BILLION stamps and donated them to other people. I work hard and teach my children to make each box better than when we found it.
Events are fairly few here, and with 8 children I don't have a lot of time to go far, yet. I'm attending my first one tomorrow-- so stinking excited!!!
Anyway, I'll try to be patient.

There is only one spot left!!

Clue 6 = Extortion

Oh, no!
Interestingly, I have seen a box survive through that. It was the strangest thing finding a box with the log it was under burned to nearly ash but the peanut butter jar it was in was perfectly fine under the rock that wasn't hiding it!

In 2009 I planted a box in Zillah, WA at a historical site called the Teapot Dome service station. Unbeknownst to me, it was found by an official of the town and caretaker of the Dome. He opened it thinking he had found a drug stash. After seeing what it was, he replace it in its home and stopped by periodically to check on the letterbox's visitors. About 2 years ago this silent watcher contacted me that the Dome and its out buildings were going to be moved and restored. All this time the watcher held onto the box and after the restoration was complete and the site reset, he replaced the box in its original position in the same building at its new location. I received confirmation this morning that the box is in place and ready for visitors.

Stories like this help make up for all the horror stories.

Yes, a migraine in the making tigs.

Anyone else have the DOA song, 'You spin me round' in their head after seeing this?

I would be up for finding one like this - but it would take me a bit to figure out the clue.

Go for it.

I participated in my first 5k, the Jingle Bell Run, in Seattle. I am 61. I walked part, ran part but the chaos of the race boosted me to my personal best at that time. 40:20. My daughter and I signed up together to do the Hot Chocolate Run in March. I've taken 2 minutes off my time since December. Now the crazy woman has convinced me to do a 12K in Prosser in May. You can know for sure I'll be walking part of that one. Just to see if I could do the distance at all I did a baseline run/walk. It made me feel good to see i could do it even if the time wasn't that great. Nice thing about fun runs is that it doesn't have to be.

I use the treadmills at the gym a lot because of the weather here. Last week i met another older woman who was looking toward the HC run as her first race. Her daughter talked her into it.

Rooting for you. Are you going to paint your face?

What a guy! Thanks for sharing this story.

My grandmother's health has been going downhill for a couple of years. She has a bad valve in her heart, and has been hospitalized periodically to drain fluids. She takes very good care of herself but she's 83, and it's not a condition that gets better. She's in the hospital now, and her kidneys have failed. She's 3000 miles away and I won't be able to see her. She's resting comfortably, but her doctors have said that she's going to have a few days to a few weeks now. She's so much more at peace with this than the rest of us are.

I am really, really going to miss her. Please keep Lulu in your thoughts. The best we can hope for is an easy transition.

well it is really windy out here today .... so maybe just maybe they will postpone so i can get up there and pull them .... only 3 of the 5 are at risk ... there is also one other box that was just recently planted at that park that i have not gotten to find yet ... *crossing fingers* the wind will stop them ...

rescue mission tomorrow morning

I'm enjoying this thread. Among the comments I've read so far, this one caught my eye:

if you stick a bought logbook in there, you're getting a 4

The logbook is pretty far down on my list of criteria. A custom-made logbook is fun, but carves, clues, and locations are way more important to me. And in most of the boxes we've planted, the logbook is a bit of an afterthought. Usually homemade (e.g. hole-punched index cards bound by a key ring), but usually nothing to write home about. So do other people downgrade for store-bought logbooks?

Donkey (and Penguin)

Praying!

Donkey, it depends on the book. if it is one of those meant to be a memo pad where the pages fall off every time a page is turned, it doesn't help my mental attitude toward the overall package. A spectacular logbook will raise my mental attitude of the time the owner put into the box. However, in reality, so many logbooks are ruined by boxers not resealing boxes that I don't expect spectacular logbooks for a standard out of doors traditional box.

Today in AQ's "This Day In History"

1964 G.I. Joe Introduced: This toy action figure was introduced by Hasbro and sold for $2.49. It was the first mass-market doll intended for boys and was a great success.

Some additional information:

On Guadalcanal the Marines struggled to complete an airfield. Japanese Admiral Yamamoto knew what that meant. No effort would be spared to dislodge these upstart Yanks from a position that could endanger his ships. Before long, relentless Japanese counterattacks had driven supporting U.S Navy ships from inshore waters. The Marines were on their own.

As Platoon Sgt. Mitchell Paige and his 33 riflemen set about carefully emplacing their four water-cooled .30-caliber Brownings, manning their section of the thin khaki line which was expected to defend Henderson Field against the assault of the night of 25 Oct 1942, it's unlikely anyone thought they were about to provide the definitive answer to that most desperate of questions: How many able-bodied U.S. Marines does it take to hold a hill against 2,000 desperate and motivated Japanese attackers? Nor did the commanders of the mighty Japanese Army, who had swept all before them for decades, expect their advance to be halted on some jungle ridge manned by one thin line of Yanks in khaki in October of 1942.

But by the time the night was over, The Japanese 29th Infantry Regiment had lost 553 killed or missing and 479 wounded among its 2,554 men, historian Lippman reports. The Japanese 16th Regiment's losses are uncounted, but the [US] 164th's burial parties handled 975 Japanese bodies. The American estimate of 2,200 Japanese dead is probably too low.

Among the 90 American dead and seriously wounded that night were all the men in Mitchell Paige's platoon; every one. As the night of endless attacks wore on, Paige moved up and down his line, pulling his dead and wounded comrades back into their foxholes and firing a few bursts from each of the four Brownings in turn, convincing the Japanese forces down the hill that the positions were still manned.

The citation for Paige's Medal of Honor picks up the tale: When the enemy broke through the line directly in front of his position, P/Sgt. Paige, commanding a machine gun section with fearless determination, continued to direct the fire of his gunners until all his men were either killed or wounded. Alone, against the deadly hail of Japanese shells, he fought with his gun and when it was destroyed, took over another, moving from gun to gun, never ceasing his withering fire.

In the end, Sgt. Paige picked up the last of the 40-pound, belt-fed Brownings -- the same design which John Moses Browning famously fired for a continuous 25 minutes until it ran out of ammunition, glowing cherry red, at its first U.S. Army trial -- and did something for which the weapon was never designed. Sgt. Paige walked down the hill toward the place where he could hear the last Japanese survivors rallying to move around his flank, the belt-fed gun cradled under his arm, firing as he went.

Coming up at dawn, battalion executive officer Major Odell M. Conoley was first to discover the answer to our question: How many able-bodied Marines does it take to hold a hill against two regiments of motivated, combat-hardened infantrymen who have never known defeat? The answer: One hill, one Marine.

"In the early morning light, the enemy could be seen a few yards off, and vapor from the barrels of their machine guns was clearly visible," reports historian Lippman. "It was decided to try to rush the position." For the task, Major Conoley gathered together "three enlisted communication personnel, several riflemen, a few company runners who were at the point, together with a cook and a few mess men who had brought food to the position the evening before." Joined by Paige, this ad hoc force of 17 Marines counterattacked at 5:40 a.m , discovering that this extremely short range allowed the optimum use of grenades. They cleared the ridge.

And that's where the unstoppable wave of Japanese conquest finally crested, broke, and began to recede. On an unnamed jungle ridge on an insignificant island no one had ever heard of, called Guadalcanal.

But who remembers, today, how close a thing it was -- the ridge held by a single Marine, in the autumn of 1942? When the Hasbro Toy Co. telephoned some years back, asking permission to put the retired Colonel's face on some kid's doll, Mitchell Paige thought they must be joking. But they weren't. That's his face on the little Marine they call "G.I. Joe."

So do other people downgrade for store-bought logbooks?

I don't, though if you have fantastic clues, a fantastic location, and a fantastic stamp, it would be jarring to have a dollar-store notebook in the box.

One of the planters mentioned earlier in this thread isn't a carver or a logbook-maker, yet a number of his earlier plants (before he started collaborating with other people for stamps/logbooks) have blue diamonds and even a BotW. That's because his clues are spectacular.

Usually homemade (e.g. hole-punched index cards bound by a key ring), but usually nothing to write home about.

Wait until you see a spectacular one! There aren't that many great logbook makers, but oh, the ones that are -- truly beautiful things! I've had the pleasure of seeing Bluebirdlover, Ravenwolf, Foraych, and Figureeight logbooks that are AMAZING.

Mama's logbooks ain't so bad neither!

Was completely blown away by one of Bluebirdlovers logbooks at a recent gathering. She is amazing.

This run looks so fun!!!! I have wanted to do it for a while but it never comes close to the Santa Barbara area :( You are going to have a great time!! Remember - white socks too! :):)

white socks?

40:20 for a 5K? You are a rockstar!!!!! I did the Santa Run here in Santa Barbara but not too many people came that day - must have been because it was raining :) LOL :):) Have fun doing the HC run! :)

Hi Everyone,
I am starting to train again with Team in Training and wanted to ask everyone if they are interested in making a tax deductible donation to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. It is a great cause and I am excited to get back into training! Here is my website:

http://pages.teamintraining.org/los/rnr13/cfarinpour

Thank you all! :)

The color they throw goes everywhere! :):) Its in a powder form so so you make your socks colorful too! :)

Ah, thanks on the explanation.

i was shocked at the 40:20 myself. totally had to be adrenalin that day. but now that I know i can do it I'm setting a harder goal for the HC run. Something to motivate me to work toward and helps with the dieting.

on the subject of diet... I'm somewhat stalled in momentum. I've been on antibiotics for a tick bite for 12 days and have gained water and not lost any weight at all.

Great story! It is true that it often takes very little effort to make the world a happier place.

I will definitely downgrade for a logbook. A blue diamond is supposed to be about the WHOLE package. Clue, Location, Carve, Box, Logbook, Those are 5 points and if you get them all then you get the 5 --anything missing, I take off points. :-) I am a harsh critic, but I think a lot of blue diamonds only get them for the carve.

-Amanda from Seattle

http://shawnakeaton.blogspot.com/2013/02/a-big-day-ahead.html

I do have one card for a few trades

Agree Amanda. Ive become a harsher critic now that i have traveled some and seen some true blue diamond boxes. You learn to gauge based on what you are exposed to early in the game. I was exposed to good boxes, but now I know they were not necessarily BD boxes. I have one with a BD that never should have been.

I think a lot of blue diamonds only get them for the carve.

Or the box, or the location, or because it was a pretty day, or the state of mind of the finder, or because the finder really likes the planter...it's all subjective.