Who are You?
Well, I am Catchow. Well that’s my trail name. Well, actually Catchow is my trail name when I’m letterboxing with my family. When my boyfriend is along, our trail name is “Couple’s Creed.”
I started letterboxing in 2006. I was in the fifth grade when I started. My teacher at the time actually introduced me to letterboxing! She so happens to be Mamma Huntin Dog! For my birthday that year my Aunt got me a scrapbook just for letterboxing. For my party, my friends went with me to Michael’s Arts and Crafts store and they picked out little logbooks and stamps. I picked a cat face stamp because I liked cats and we had to get rid of our cats due to my baby brother being allergic to them. Where I came up with the trail name “Catchow,” I have no idea! But “Catchow” stuck and also became usernames for various games and emails and what not. Anyways… I was born in December, so this is when we went letterboxing. If you have lived in Ohio, or at least stayed in Ohio for a decent amount of time, you would know what the weather will be like. One day it is 100*F outside and the next day there will be a high of 80*F. Or One day the alarms are going off because of tornadoes and the next day it is snowing! This is crazy bipolar Ohio weather for you! Well that day it was cold enough for winter coats so we all piled in the car and went out searching for boxes! It was a blast! Sadly I was the only one who continued letterboxing after that day. Since then my family and I have been letterboxing on and off throughout the years. We would mainly just letterbox when we were out of state and on vacation. This summer has been a letterboxing frenzy! All though almost all the letterboxing I have done this summer has been with my boyfriend, I have done a lot with my family.
My family trail name is “Niles Miles” we often put “NilesMiles.com” as the trail name so we don’t have to write the trail name AND the blog site down twice. Our family stamp is of a train, hence “Miles.” Our last name is “Niles” so put the two together and you get “Niles Miles!” My dad likes going letterboxing with us but he doesn’t do too much all the time. He often time has his phone and/or ipad looking at the instruction (which my mom usually reads). He does go out trekking through the woods when none of can find the box or if it is up a hill or something like that to make sure we don’t get hurt. Other than that he doesn’t do too much. My mom is usually the clue reader (I have been doing the clue reading recently but it’s probably a good thing that she does it instead. I tend to mess up a lot!) and she helps (or usually ends up doing) with the stamping of the family log book. My brother Dylan (who is 2 years younger than I am) usually holds the letterboxing bag because my parents don’t want to, Gavin won’t, and I have my camera most of the time. He also complains a lot and goes and finds the boxes. Gavin (who is 9 years younger than I am) finds the boxes and “helps” mom stamp the log book. He often complains and is very impatient. Oh, and Gavin also doesn’t like getting dirty or digging through piles of leaves and sticks. He’s such an odd child!
There are many boxes we have found as a family that have been missing. It is a disappointment when we don’t find boxes but those adventures can be quiet crazy! During Christmas break in 2006 we went down to Florida to visit my grandparents. We went to Myacka State park in search or letterboxes! We went searching for an alligator letterbox. We walked about a mile or so in the Florida heat, along a wide, dirt trail, lined with large power lines. Once we made it to the trail we were looking for, we walked until almost sun down looking for this box! It was very scary because not too far into the trail we found alligator beds! It was going to be dark soon and the gators would come, so we had to high tail it out of there! Keep in mind, we hadn’t gone letterboxing too much at the time!
Over a year ago I became friends with a young man in my neighborhood. Over a month later we started dating and have been together ever since. Well I doubt you want to know the whole story on how we met and bla, bla, bla, and I bet you want to know why this is relevant to letterboxing. Well it is scary how much we are alike. One day, on the way to being dropped off at band practice, I asked him if he knew about letterboxing and what do you know! He had been letterboxing since 2006 as well! Well we decided to make our own stamp so when we go letterboxing we don’t take forever in stamping the log book. So Catchow and Tyrus became Couple’s Creed! We chose “Couple” meaning two, since there are two of us, and “Creed” from our love of the game Assassin’s Creed.
Since this year I am not doing marching band, I have had a pretty free summer. Well other than volunteering at the Columbus Zoo, working on 4-H projects, and doing AP home work I have had a free summer, but all that stuff doesn’t take up too much time. Anyways… This summer I got to plant my first boxes! As of this post I have planted 12 Traditionals, 2 Hitchhikers, and 1 Traveler. All my stamps are drawn and hand carved. I do all the carving, all the packaging, and all the clue writing. Aidan just hides the boxes and help with the ideas.
So yeah. That’s my story so far.
~Catchow
http://catchowlbna.tumblr.com/
I started letterboxing in 2006. I was in the fifth grade when I started. My teacher at the time actually introduced me to letterboxing! She so happens to be Mamma Huntin Dog! For my birthday that year my Aunt got me a scrapbook just for letterboxing. For my party, my friends went with me to Michael’s Arts and Crafts store and they picked out little logbooks and stamps. I picked a cat face stamp because I liked cats and we had to get rid of our cats due to my baby brother being allergic to them. Where I came up with the trail name “Catchow,” I have no idea! But “Catchow” stuck and also became usernames for various games and emails and what not. Anyways… I was born in December, so this is when we went letterboxing. If you have lived in Ohio, or at least stayed in Ohio for a decent amount of time, you would know what the weather will be like. One day it is 100*F outside and the next day there will be a high of 80*F. Or One day the alarms are going off because of tornadoes and the next day it is snowing! This is crazy bipolar Ohio weather for you! Well that day it was cold enough for winter coats so we all piled in the car and went out searching for boxes! It was a blast! Sadly I was the only one who continued letterboxing after that day. Since then my family and I have been letterboxing on and off throughout the years. We would mainly just letterbox when we were out of state and on vacation. This summer has been a letterboxing frenzy! All though almost all the letterboxing I have done this summer has been with my boyfriend, I have done a lot with my family.
My family trail name is “Niles Miles” we often put “NilesMiles.com” as the trail name so we don’t have to write the trail name AND the blog site down twice. Our family stamp is of a train, hence “Miles.” Our last name is “Niles” so put the two together and you get “Niles Miles!” My dad likes going letterboxing with us but he doesn’t do too much all the time. He often time has his phone and/or ipad looking at the instruction (which my mom usually reads). He does go out trekking through the woods when none of can find the box or if it is up a hill or something like that to make sure we don’t get hurt. Other than that he doesn’t do too much. My mom is usually the clue reader (I have been doing the clue reading recently but it’s probably a good thing that she does it instead. I tend to mess up a lot!) and she helps (or usually ends up doing) with the stamping of the family log book. My brother Dylan (who is 2 years younger than I am) usually holds the letterboxing bag because my parents don’t want to, Gavin won’t, and I have my camera most of the time. He also complains a lot and goes and finds the boxes. Gavin (who is 9 years younger than I am) finds the boxes and “helps” mom stamp the log book. He often complains and is very impatient. Oh, and Gavin also doesn’t like getting dirty or digging through piles of leaves and sticks. He’s such an odd child!
There are many boxes we have found as a family that have been missing. It is a disappointment when we don’t find boxes but those adventures can be quiet crazy! During Christmas break in 2006 we went down to Florida to visit my grandparents. We went to Myacka State park in search or letterboxes! We went searching for an alligator letterbox. We walked about a mile or so in the Florida heat, along a wide, dirt trail, lined with large power lines. Once we made it to the trail we were looking for, we walked until almost sun down looking for this box! It was very scary because not too far into the trail we found alligator beds! It was going to be dark soon and the gators would come, so we had to high tail it out of there! Keep in mind, we hadn’t gone letterboxing too much at the time!
Over a year ago I became friends with a young man in my neighborhood. Over a month later we started dating and have been together ever since. Well I doubt you want to know the whole story on how we met and bla, bla, bla, and I bet you want to know why this is relevant to letterboxing. Well it is scary how much we are alike. One day, on the way to being dropped off at band practice, I asked him if he knew about letterboxing and what do you know! He had been letterboxing since 2006 as well! Well we decided to make our own stamp so when we go letterboxing we don’t take forever in stamping the log book. So Catchow and Tyrus became Couple’s Creed! We chose “Couple” meaning two, since there are two of us, and “Creed” from our love of the game Assassin’s Creed.
Since this year I am not doing marching band, I have had a pretty free summer. Well other than volunteering at the Columbus Zoo, working on 4-H projects, and doing AP home work I have had a free summer, but all that stuff doesn’t take up too much time. Anyways… This summer I got to plant my first boxes! As of this post I have planted 12 Traditionals, 2 Hitchhikers, and 1 Traveler. All my stamps are drawn and hand carved. I do all the carving, all the packaging, and all the clue writing. Aidan just hides the boxes and help with the ideas.
So yeah. That’s my story so far.
~Catchow
http://catchowlbna.tumblr.com/
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