Letterboxing!!

We are TOTALLY stoked about this new hobby we just discovered!!

I was chatting with my pastor the other day and he told me that his family does this thing called Letterboxing. He told me to Google it to learn more. (since his wife, who is really the one who knows all about it, wasn't there to teach me!) I went and looked it up and found two sites for it:

Letterboxing North America (which covers all of the North American Continent, not just the USA)

and

Atlas Quest (which covers the whole world!)

So what is Letterboxing you ask? Well, I'm glad you're interested! Let me enlighten you on this totally awesome family hobby! (It's totally free too!!)

A letterbox is any kind of waterproof container that contains a rubber stamp and a logbook. Here are a couple examples of the ones we have found:

This one was in a heavy ziploc type bag.

This was just in a Tupperware container.

The stamp is the most important part of the letterbox. Most of them are hand carved and have some significance to the location or follow some sort of theme. The detail in some of them is absolutely amazing, there are some really talented artists out there! Check this one out:

When you find a Letterbox, you put the stamp in your logbook. We just used a three ring binder and blank paper for ours. Tammy had some page protectors for scrap-booking so we put the completed pages in those:

You also use your own stamp to stamp the logbook in the Letterbox and put whatever information you like in there. We put our names, the date, and where we are from.

Making a stamp was a lot easier than I thought it would be. I just carved it out of a big pink eraser with an X-acto knife and glued it to a small block of wood. There is a nice tutorial on how to do it on the Letterboxing North America website. Ours is pretty simple:

That's our trail name, the Schafer Snoopers!

I might try to make a nicer one sometime but for now we like this one! :)

Now, you're probably wondering how one goes about finding these Letterboxes. Never fear, I have been saving the best for last!

These things are hidden by people all over the world! People who have discovered Letterboxing make their own and hide them. They then post clues on the websites so people can go find them. Once you find it and do your stamping, you put it back where you found it for the next person to find. There are literally hundreds of thousands of them hidden around the world! They can be hidden in any publicly accessible location. In our first day of searching we visited a public library and found one hiding inside:

We went to several cemeteries to find them hidden in various locations. Some of them were placed in honor of a loved one even.

We also spent several hours hiking through the woods in a huge park to find some:

One of them was really hard to find but we managed to locate it tucked behind some loose bark on an ancient tree:

That's it peaking out right in the center of the picture!

Anyway, we spent an incredible day as a family, discovering new places and having tons of fun! It didn't cost us a dime (except for gas money and our lunch) but we loved it! We did it to celebrate Tammy's birthday and she said it was a wonderful way to celebrate!

This is an absolutely awesome hobby that anyone could enjoy, especially as a family! We intend to keep it up for a long time to come. We'll be hunting letterboxes when we go on vacation and any time we have an afternoon to spend together! You just can't beat it! At least that's my opinion! :)

So have any of you heard of this?

Roof - Phase Two

So, now it's time to get rid of the unsightly flat roof over my garage!

I don't like flat roofs because they are the most likely type of roof to leak and they just don't look right on a house! So, when I decided to re-roof the house I figured I might as well frame in the garage roof so it matched the rest of the house.

I started out by building trusses to match the existing roof. I could have bought pre-made trusses but it would have cost about three times as much and been really hard to get a perfect match so I decided to build them myself.

Then it was just a matter of putting the plywood on and closing up the end and presto! a new look for my garage!

This was the most fun of the whole roofing process and was also the least exhausting! I have always enjoyed framing but I hate roofing with a passion! :)

Now, you guessed it, I have a time lapse video of this process. Unfortunately, the batteries in my camera went dead and I managed to miss a couple of pretty good chunks but it is still fun to watch! :)

So now all that's left is getting the rest of the shingles done!

Roof - Surprise

Well, I know I'm way behind on posting the progress on my roof but I'm getting there!

If you read my Phase One post you saw that I was presented with a little surprise when I was working on the back section of that end of the house!

This was supposed to be the easiest section of roof. The plan was that Tammy and I would work together pulling the shingles off and then she would work on pulling the nails out and getting it cleaned up and ready for the new shingles.

In the mean time, I was going to tear off this little ugly awning that had become quite an eyesore as well as a trap for cobwebs and stray leaves.

Everything was going great until I got the awning torn off. I discovered that the original flashings were installed wrong and had been allowing water to work its way down under the shingles and behind the siding.and into the wall over top of this sliding door! I literally could poke my finger through the plywood on the outside of the wall it was so rotted! I had to tear the entire top of the wall apart so I could rebuild it! Fortunately it was only rotted above the door so I didn't have to go down the sides at all which would have been really hard to do!

That wood you see behind that plastic sheeting is the back of the paneling inside the house! For once I was thankful to not have drywall in there or it would have been a much bigger mess to repair. I was able to rebuild the wall and nail the paneling back in place and be done! I still need to do a little more repair work on the outside and get the siding back up but the wood is solid now so I'm pretty happy!

Thankfully, this was the last surprise I was faced with while doing this roofing project! I'd love to get a hold of the roofers who re-roofed this house about 12 years ago and strangle them for not fixing the flashing the way it should have been instead of leaving it there even though it was wrong! Of course, based on the quality of the workmanship I saw everywhere else, I'm not surprised that they didn't care!

So the next step is framing in the garage roof to eliminate the flat roof and make it peaked to match the rest of the house!!

Roof - Phase One

Well, I figured it was time to explain why I haven't been around the blog-sphere very much lately. I have been spending most of my free time getting a tan on my roof! :)

Seriously, I have a darker tan than I've had in years!! :)

Well anyway, If you have read these two posts you know that I had to rebuild my porch because of water damage. That damage was due to the roof leaking so the real project was to re-roof the house to stop that from happening again to my pretty new porch!

So, this was how I spent my holiday on July 4th! I woke up and got an early start, intending to make short work of this front section of roof: (Short was the desire but not the reality!)

First, the shingles came off and I pulled the thousand or so nails that remained sticking out of the roof:

Then the bottom row of plywood had to be removed because that was where the leaking had been and it was rotted out:

Then I had to repair the rotted rafters:

Then after getting some new plywood in place I was finally able to start putting down the new shingles:

And finally, the finished product:

Now I say "finished" but this is just the first section.

If you notice, we changed the color of the roof from red to this nice gray-blue. It just makes sense since the trim, the posts, and the doors are blue, right? Well, the truth is, we changed that stuff from red to blue a few years ago so it is nice to get the roof to match once again!

Now for the fun part! I set up my timelapse video camera to catch the whole process! I wanted a good vantage point, so despite Tammy's fears of me getting myself killed, I mounted it way up on a telephone pole!

The second half of this video is a bit boring because it is of a different day when we were doing a small section on the back and you can't really see it very much. Not to mention that while I was working on that section I found another place where there had been a leak and I ended up spending most of the day tearing out and rebuilding a rotted out section of wall! But that's a story for my next post.

You'll notice that Tammy came up and started helping me when I was about half-way done with the shingles on the front. She did this because I was so exhausted by the time I got that far that she faced her fear of heights and helped me finish! She has continued to be a huge help as this project continues and I am very thankful for her!

Enjoy the video:

So there you have it! Isn't it crazy the lengths to which people will go to get a tan?

Elantris - Brandon Sanderson

Elantris
By: Brandon Sanderson
Published: 2005
Audiobook Read by: Graphic Audio
My rating: SPECTACULAR








I was reading a post by my friend Jamie over at Mithril Wisdom and he mentioned a few authors including Brandon Sanderson. When I was checking him out I ended up getting this book. I have to say a hearty thank you to Jamie for this one! It was GREAT!!

Prince Raoden is nothing like his father. His desire is to see his country prosper and grow strong. Since the fall of the great city of Elantris, Arelon has fallen into disarray. The king, being a greedy merchant before being crowned, is not helping. The people were so accustomed to getting everything they needed from the magical Elantrians that now they don't know how to take care of themselves.

To make matters worse, there is a serious threat from the religious order of the Derethi, who's power is vast and who's forces are ruthless. Between the king's stupidity, the people's confusion, and the impending religious jihad, there doesn't seem to be much hope, but Raoden has a plan. Little does he know that the Shaod will be visiting him, dooming him to the cursed city of Elantris and pulling the rug out from under all his plans to save Arelon!

What nobody was prepared for was the tall, red-headed princess from Teod! Sarene, arrived in Arelon ready to marry a man who is now dead. Most women would have been hysterical about it but Sarene takes control of her situation and picks up where her betrothed husband left off. Sarene is a woman to be reckoned with, and like it or not, Arelon has to deal with her now! Can Sarene's determination and Raoden's studies of Elantrian magic be enough to save them? It certainly doesn't look very hopeful!

I loved the depth of this book! Brandon has developed a very complex society here complete with religious controversies, cultural complexities, and magic that is powerful yet vulnerable to the laws of nature. The characters are well developed and their struggle to understand the world around them is very easy to relate to. The religious conflict was equally interesting. There were two distinct religions that were at work in the story, each having their own deity but each also having some similarities as well. The protagonist of the invading religion is a man of values and is surprisingly respectable despite being bent on domination.

When I looked for this book in audio format I found a traditional audiobook read by a single narrator as well as Graphic Audio's production done by an entire cast of actors. I contacted the company to see how much abridgement the story underwent during production and was informed that nothing was cut out except what was made unnecessary by the way it was produced. I decided to give it a try and was very impressed. I followed along in the book for a few pages to see how accurate it was and as far as dialog went, it was pretty much verbatim. There were a few omissions that were along the lines of descriptions and such but overall I enjoyed it very much.

If you are a science fiction/fantasy buff you'll love this one! It is very complex and keeps you interested from beginning to end!

Tying Up Loose Ends

Well if you read my post on Leaving Things Hanging, you saw that my front porch was in need of some help, like this:

Well, I had to rebuild the beam to give the poles something to do so Tammy helped me get it put back together:

The poles were really happy to be holding something up again. But the ceiling was needing some attention as well:

I had to add 2x4s crosswise to support more 2x4s running lengthwise to support the vinyl soffit. Finally I got aluminum bent to cover the beam, put the gutter back up and installed the soffit back in place. It looks a lot better now:

It's a happy porch now!

And now just one more picture of Tammy helping me so very much!

She really is a LOT of help, even if she sometimes just stands there looking beautiful! :)


Now for the roof itself.......

Artemis Fowl - Eoin Colfer

Artemis Fowl
By: Eoin Colfer
Published: 2001
Audiobook Read by: Nathaniel Parker
My rating: Wonderful







When I listened to the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, I liked it so much I decided to get the rest of the books in the series. I discovered that the last of the six books is actually written by Eoin Colfer so I did a little research on him and discovered that he wrote this Artemis Fowl series of children's books. Now, confession time, I got this to listen to with the kids but since I didn't know what it was like I decided to listen to a little bit of it and make sure I approved. Well, after listening to a little bit I couldn't stop and listened to the whole thing!

Artemis is a genius. Artemis is a criminal mastermind. Artemis is fabulously wealthy. Artemis is twelve years old.

Yes, Artemis is only twelve but his genius makes him a far more formidable adversary than age could have done. He knows that his family's fortunes are starting to dwindle since his father's disappearance, so he devises a plot to bolster them. Who can have enough wealth to give Artemis a chance to get what he needs in one shot? The fairies do! But they're just the stuff of myth and legend aren't they? Artemis knows better, and to make him even more dangerous, he knows the secrets behind their magic. All he needs to do is use their own magic and rules against them. The boys in LEPrecon, trained soldiers of the highest degree that they are, don't stand a chance. Artemis is one step ahead of them at every turn. What they see is a foe that is calm, efficient, brutal, and has nerves of steel and ice water in his veins. But is he really that hard? Artemis has his weaknesses but they'll never be able to use them against him.

This book was a masterpiece of imagination! I love the image of fairies, leprechauns, dwarfs and trolls that flies in the face of all the fairy tails. The personalities Eoin gives them are so much fun and so very different from anything we read about in our bedtime stories! I also love the human characters. Artemis, while being a criminal, is still someone you can have sympathy for and his henchmen are also likeable. The plot of the story keeps you guessing and in the end ties up nicely. I was fully engrossed in it from the very beginning!

I listened to the audio book read by Nathaniel Parker. He did a spectacular job with all the voices and his accent was wonderful!

Overall, this is a great book and I wouldn't hesitate to share it with my kids! In fact, I will be listening to it again, with them, and I'm sure I'll enjoy it just as much the second time around!

Leaving Things Hanging

It's never a good idea to leave things hanging is it?

Well, I've really left things hanging here!

I am getting ready to re-roof the house but before I could start I had to repair some water damage that had happened over the porch. It should have been quick and easy but as with everything, it blossomed into a much bigger job than I anticipated!

I'm going tomorrow to get the lumber to build a new beam but until then, I guess I'm letting it all hang out there! :)

Hopefully by the end of the weekend this section will be all done and re-roofed! But then I'll have the rest of the roof to do!

To Be Continued.....

The Vicious Vet - M. C. Beaton

The Vicious Vet
By: M. C. Beaton
Published: 1993
Audiobook Read by: Donada Peters
My rating: Great








After listening to The Quiche Of Death, the first of the Agatha Raisin mysteries, I just couldn't resist getting more! Agatha is just too much fun!

Well, it all came about because Agatha was so desperate to get friendly with that handsome neighbor of her's, James Lacey! She would have never gone so far with her inquiries if she hadn't found it to be such a good excuse to spend a fun afternoon with James, running down suspects, searching for clues, and getting into loads of trouble! But how was she to know it really would turn out to be murder? Furthermore, how could she have guessed that the killer wouldn't stop with just one? Oh well, it was all worth it just to hear James pretending that they were married! How could a girl resist a heartthrob like James anyway, Agatha would gladly walk through fire just to be near him!

Agatha is such a fun and quirky detective! I have so much fun following her derailed trains of thought. She chases after the craziest ideas but ends up landing the right fish in spite of herself! The addition of James Lacey to her investigations was great! James is a bit more level headed but still tends to follow some wild ideas. Poor Bill Wong has his hands full trying to keep the two of them out of trouble!

I listened to the audiobook read by Donada Peters and just as before, her performance was absolutely wonderful!

Overall, this is pretty light reading but is a lot of fun and will keep you chuckling as you follow Agatha's antics! :)

The Beekeeper's Apprentice - Laurie R. King

The Beekeeper's Apprentice
By: Laurie R. King
Published: 1994
Audiobook Read by: Jenny Sterlin
My rating: Great









I have always been a huge Sherlock Holmes fan but when I listened to the Italian Secretary by Caleb Carr, I was a little disappointed. However, my friend Nancy suggested this series and I am so glad she did!

When young Mary Russell bumps into an old man sitting on the ground watching bees, she never guessed that she would end up being the apprentice of the world famous Sherlock Holmes!

When Sherlock Holmes, sitting quietly watching some bees at their work, is nearly trampled by a young girl, (a part American girl at that) he would have never guessed that he had found a mind very nearly equal to his own!

The unlikely pair forms a bond of friendship that runs deeper than either of them expected. As Holmes begins to refine Mary's already keen intellect, he finds that she has as sharp an eye and as brilliant a mind as he has ever seen. They spend many happy hours playing mind games with each other, honing their skills together in unwitting preparation for the case that will quite probably cost one of them their lives!

I really enjoyed this book! Laurie has successfully captured the feel of a real Sherlock Holmes mystery. She gives all the clues up front and allows the reader to decipher them to see if they can match up with what Holmes deduces. Beyond that she has introduced a very likeable character, in Mary Russell, that can match wits with the great detective and keep him on his toes. The mysteries themselves are well plotted and kept me guessing for quite some time. I loved the way the primary case stretched out over time instead of being presented as a neat little affair that was tied up in a couple of days. Mary Russell is very much a good match for Holmes and I'm glad there are more books in the series!

I listed to the audiobook read by Jenny Sterlin and loved every minute of it! Jenny did a wonderful job and really brought Mary to life.

Overall, if you like Sherlock Holmes mysteries, you should really check this one out! I don't think you'll be disappointed!

The Restaurant At The End Of The Universe - Douglas Adams

The Restaurant At The End Of The Universe
By: Douglas Adams
Published: 1980
Audiobook Read by: Martin Freeman
My rating: Great









OK, so I listened to The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy and absolutely loved it! Therefore, I just couldn't wait any longer to move on to this next book in the saga!

Arthur, Ford, Zaphod, and Trillian find themselves having a nice dinner while watching the universe come to an end all around them. (Yes, that's right, it comes to an end.) Dinner was very nice despite Arthur's aversion to eating the steak put before him since the cow it came from was so friendly and talkative. Anyway, it was fun. Now lets steal an all black robot ship and take a ride straight into the center of a sun located two million years in the past. ("Wait, does it have to be black? black is so depressing." "Yes Marvin, it doesn't come in any other colors. Besides, you're already depressed anyway!" "I know, it's just...see...well...I'm trying to limit my depression to something less than total and complete. I can handle dying in a fireball at the center of that sun but doing it in an all black ship is just too much.") Of course we all know that a teleport with no guidance system is a bad idea but hey, let's give it a whirl and see what happens. It'll be fun!

We leave Arthur and Ford to the task of teaching cavemen how to play Scrabble. ("I keep telling you, they aren't cavemen! They live in huts!" "Yes I know they live in huts, but calling them hutmen just sounds ridiculous!") Could the question to life, the universe and everything be buried in the minds of these primitive creatures? Can Arthur teach the cavemen how to total up a triple word score? Will there ever be anymore hot water for the captain's bath? Is Marvin still depressed? So many questions, so few answers! Oh well, Ford and Arthur have two million years to figure it all out before the Vogon Constructor Fleet destroys Earth all over again. Plenty of time, so let's go for a nice cup of tea while we think about it!

This wasn't quite as good as the first one but I still very much enjoyed it! I think, considering the magnificent heights of hilarity and imagination the first book attained, it would have been very hard to do any better! However, it was a lot of fun and Douglas' wild imagination was once again in full swing in this book. I absolutely love the crazy off the wall things that are constantly happening to our heroes as they continue their adventures. I will be hard put to wait very long to listen to the next book in this six volume trilogy!

I listened to the audiobook read by Martin Freeman. Martin did a great job and kept me entertained throughout. However, I felt he didn't give Marvin quite the depressed sound that he deserved but it was still a lot of fun!

Overall, you can't go wrong with these books! They are so much fun and I love the totally bent sense of humor they are written with!

I'm officially a published author!!

OK, I confess I cheated a little bit.

I used Kindle Direct Publishing.

But it's still publishing! So I'm counting it! :)

*   *   *   *   *

So here it is! It's just a short story but it's a start!

If you want to check it out, here it is in the US Kindle store, here is the UK store, and here is the DE store.

You don't have to have a Kindle to read it, you can download the Kindle for PC software for free!

So anyway, I was excited so I thought I'd share my excitement with the people I knew would be most likely to share it! :)

I am working on doing a re-write on Just A Piece Of Trash and then I'll have to get the formatting done so I can submit it as well. Who knows where I'll go from there! I have all kinds of ideas floating around in my head, so I'll just have to grab one and go for it!


 I would also like to say thank you to all of you who have encouraged me so much in my writing and gave me the incentive to keep at it and give this a try!

You Guys Are GREAT!!!

The Hostile Hospital - Lemony Snicket

The Hostile Hospital
By: Lemony Snicket
Published: 2001
Audiobook Read by: Tim Curry
My rating: Delightful








Wanted for crimes they didn't commit, (we know who did commit them) the children are on their own. Not even Mr. Poe can be counted on to help them (not that has ever been much help in the past) so they must stick together and take care of themselves!

Finding very little chance of escape, the children fall in with The Volunteers Fighting Disease. The odd group is heading to Heimlich Hospital to sing to the patients and pass out heart shaped balloons. The Baudelaires are excepted readily as the newest volunteers and transported away from their pursuers. Unfortunately, as has been true so often, Count Olaf finds them and concocts yet another nefarious plan. (A phrase which here means, trying to remove Violet's head completely without her written permission!) Fortunately for the youngsters, they have learned a thing or two about how Count Olaf's mind works and are able to turn the tables on him using some of his own tricks. But how were they to know that all of their efforts would still land them closed up in the trunk of his car heading who knows where?

This book was a little bit different from the others because the children are completely on their own, no Mr. Poe, no guardian, and nobody to help them out of a tight spot. I liked the change of pace and am curious to see how the series progresses from here. They are very resourceful children and each new situation seems to push them to more and more inventive solutions. It's really quite thrilling, in a totally preposterous sort of way. Which is what makes it so much fun! :)

Once again, we were well entertained by Tim Curry's performance! I think it would be most difficult to find anyone better suited to read these books!

Overall, this was a great book in the series, changing up the normal pattern. If you have followed the series this far, don't stop now!

Winesburg, Ohio - Sherwood Anderson

Winesburg, Ohio
By: Sherwood Anderson
Published: 1919
Audiobook Read by: George Guidall
My rating: Interesting








I decided to listen to this book for two reasons. First, when I listened to The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury, Ray gave credit to this book as being part of his inspiration. Second, I live just fifteen minutes from the real town of Winesburg, Ohio in the heart of Amish Country. I was slightly disappointed to discover it was not about our Winesburg but was about a fictitious town that Sherwood just happened to call Winesburg. Oh well. :(

It seems that George Willard is destined to learn the strangest things about the people in his little town. As a journalist for the local newspaper, people seem eager to tell him their stories. We learn all kinds of things about the townsfolk, some of it quite interesting, some of it rather odd or even bizarre! We also learn quite a lot about George himself and get to see snapshots of him as he grows up, matures, and finally becomes a man, ready to face the wide, wide world.

This was kind of an odd book for me. I liked some of the stories but others were kind of out there. The quality of the writing is very good and I followed along quite well but now and then I found myself wondering what the point was! The picture of life in the late 1800s - early 1900s was quite interesting and as always when I listen to a book from this era I found myself wishing to live back then!

I listened to the audiobook read by George Guidall. It was a complete coincidence that he was also the one to do the last book I listened to but I was far from crestfallen! Like I said then, he has become my favorite narrator! He has a wonderful voice and is so expressive that I feel like I'm right there in the story itself!

Overall, this is an interesting book but not one I would rush out to get. If you like little "slice of life" stories, this collection might be of interest.

The Cat Who Turned On And Off - Lillian Jackson Braun

The Cat Who Turned On And Off
By: Lillian Jackson Braun
Published: 1968
Audiobook Read by: George Guidall
My rating: Wonderful









OK, I'm hooked on Koko, Yum-yum, and Qwill! I have listened to several of the books in this series and have been enjoying them more and more!

In this third book of the series, Qwill is still getting himself established and is finding it difficult to find an affordable place to live. When he finds out about a substantial prize being offered to the staff of the Daily Fluxion for the best story for the Christmas season, he decides to win it with a series on the antiquing scene in the run down part of the city known as Junktown. Well, of course we all know that Qwill can't write a nice feel good story with heart! As always, murder calls to him and he ends up trying to solve the mystery surrounding the death of one of Junktown's most loved and sometimes most hated dealers! The problem is, it wasn't a murder at all, it was just a tragic accident....or was it? Only Koko seems to know!

Once again, Lillian has created a unique mystery here that kept me on the edge of my seat right up to the very end. I have been impressed so far with the variety of mysteries she presents. Each one has been significantly different from the others and presents new possibilities and new characters every time. The one wonderful constant in all the books, though, is the wonderful descriptions of the two cats and their antics. I have never found an author better at conveying the unique nature of cats than Lillian! Her descriptions give me a vivid picture of what Koko and Yum-yum are doing and I often laugh a little as I recognize the very things I see my own cat do!

I listened to the audiobook read by George Guidall and as always, I loved his performance! I think he is probably my favorite narrator of all the ones I have heard so far!

Overall, this is a lot of fun and if you are looking for some light, entertaining reading, you can't go wrong with these books!