Monday, December 29, 2014

Geocache. Everything.

One last post before the New Year of 2015. I meant to do this sooner, as the content is Christmas. Ornaments. Specifically, Geocaching Ornaments. Walmart had clear plastic ornament balls for $1. I picked up a dozen or more of them for crafts. They do not split apart, but rather just the top pulls out, and you fill it that way. On Pinterest they had some similar ones to those. I couldn't resist making some myself.

This is the ornament that I filled as a Cache container. Its contents include: a very short pencil, a duct tape made GPS, some random paper material from misprinted logs, a regular log, foam letters to represent everyone in the house, and a band-a-loom panda bear that I found in Las Vegas NV this fall. I printed out the green official label, and used Mod Podge to cover it.


Ever wonder what to do with those wet or full logs that you find? Wonder no more. Keep them. I've come across containers that are so full of logs, that no swag will even fit in them. Logs that had gotten wet, from either caching in the rain or leaky container, that will never dry out in a small damp container. After a day of heavy caching, the girls and I came to realize that someone had been caching in the rain the previous weekend, and every log was soaked. A couple drops of water in a small container is normally bad news. We ended up just replacing most of the logs. At the end of the day we had a glove box full of damp logs. Took them in the house and they dried out the next day. Well now I had about 20 GC logs. The thought of throwing them away with everyones memory of each GC was not what I wanted to do. Several of them even had doodles on them. After making the GC Ornament, I thought that would be neat to do with these. I put the Official label on it, rolled each log up, and placed them into the plastic ball. Gave it a few shakes and they looked pretty cool. I've got 3 of them now, in fact, I gave one to a fellow Cacher friend. :)




Tuesday, December 2, 2014

GeoChain?

Oh what a wondrous adventure. Getting closer to reaching 100 caches. A little on what's been going on since last post. Our DD turned 13, and she asked to see Hunger Games Mockingjay, and to go Geocaching. Yes, it was a proud moment. :) I took her and to of her friends. It was fun. However, I've had this problem whenever I take someone caching with me in my car, no room to get into my Cache pack when someone is in the front seat. It's better because of the pack that I got, but there's not a lot of room in a Hummer. Swag bag I can keep in the console or to the side of seat. Pen, I always have in my shirt pocket. Log roller, swiss army knife w/tweezers, replacement logs, and flashlight, are all in my pack. If they were larger items, it would be worth it to have my passengers sitting against and on my pack. We got nearly 20 new finds for each of us on her birthday run. It didn't take me long to figure out a different system for park and grab (P&G).

A keychain, hanging from my mirror, or tucked in the console, would be clever. Something that ties all my tools of the trade (TOTT) together in one place. So here's my lightbulb. This is what I have so far.
Flashlight, log roller, mini snap pliers (we call them fish hook removers), a Bison and a Nano tube loaded to be hidden (never know when you'll come across a neat spot), a larger case that has bison and nano size waterproof replacement logs, and then some swag. I only have a paracord person on it at the moment, but I'd like to get a small zippered bag to hold swag items. So I've got 3 sections. One has the tools needed on the same ring, so they can be slipped off the carabiner. The hide tubes and spare logs are their own section. Then once I get by the store this evening to get some more rings, I'll have a ring with swag on it.

Something that's missing that I'd like to have would be a retractable keychain. We stopped at harbor Freight this morning and I glimpsed for one, but they were out. They are stronger than the ones that use string. We actually use the retractable ones here at the muffler shop for our strikers. Here's a picture I got offline of what it is. This would make it easy to grab the carabiner and pull it to me to get what I need off of it.

Here's a different option. I come across these keyrings quite a bit also. Their already set up to do just that. Come apart in sections. Here's a picture I got offline below.
Have I struck the Pinterest bone yet? Thanks for reading.