Box Maintenance

I really don’t mind performing box maintenance for a number of reasons. I can see what is in the logbook, I get some exercise in a location I know, I get to see what has changed in the area, and I can make sure everything is as it should be with the box.

I use the suggestion that Green Tortuga had of how to keep track of boxes that I had been to recently. I record my box as found by me…it doesn’t add to my F count, it tells me when I was last out there, and it tells anyone looking at it that I have checked on the box and things are good last I was there.

With this current warm spell we’re having in Northern NY, I have been doing a lot of maintenance. Not many surprises. I did switch one less than weatherproof box out to a Lock N Lock and had to replace the logbook on it as it got very wet. This weekend, I hope to get up to the other box that is similar to do the same thing. Overall, the logbooks have been good and there hasn’t been a whole lot to maintain. I don’t get a lot of traffic to the boxes but I like to make sure they are still available anyway. You never know when someone may be passing through the area.

This maintenance routine also allows my letterboxing instincts a little satisfaction. There are a couple boxes near me that I have yet to find but overall, most of them are too far away to make a good day trip. But checking up on my own boxes, allows me to stay close to home and still feel like I’m letterboxing. After all, maybe the box is gone…maybe something happened to it.

It is a welcome chore and doesn’t really seem like that. Not like housework, or doing laundry. And it really works well to quell those letterboxing withdrawal symptoms that not getting a postal in a few days can bring on!