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(bold type added) But what is crap?? I have a few inexpensive plastic handled, colapsable cork screws in my swagger box. (I believe they probably have the name of some business imprinted on them). This item is durable, useful, and small enough to fit in most caches - and probably worth about 50 cents. I would consider it to be a decent item for a cache - and I would not necessarily consider it "crap". However, compared to the "Sterling Silver and Turquoise thunderbird necklace" that you left in your "Nice Swag Cache", it probably is crap! Now would you be upset if I left my cork screw and took your neclace? If you are then you are simply wanting to maintain the "Trade up or Trade Even" convention that most say they abide by. That is the convention that I would like to see changed. No, I don't think your cork screw is crap. I like wine! It's a nice item, with a value of sorts. If the person leaving it considers it a proper 'thank you, cachers' item, that's the point, and it's fine with me.

OK. Here's another way to go: request what you want and see how well it flies. Here's my new cache: Nice Swag cache http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_detai...47-51a935c17817 And what, may I ask is wrong with that idea? If they end up taking all the good swag and leaving crap, then I'll admit defeat and change the name of the cache. But I thought I'd give the local cachers a chance to show what they're made of. and I don't mean, show that they are made of money! Made of niceness, perhaps..

I agree that the hunt and a good location are the best kinds of caches, regardless of the swag. But on a new cache that I just placed, I decided to designate it a 'Nice Swag cache,' as a thank you to the Central Indiana cachers who's hides have so enhanced my free time for the last 6 months. http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_detai...47-51a935c17817 I have done 'normal' placements, and have no problem with the concept. It's just that the location of the new cache is so special, I felt it deserved nice swag. I have seen other 'theme' caches that requested you leave something blue, for example. Another requested only 'heart' items. And a third spcifically asked for 50 year old foreign coins only. So my theme is nice swag. Why not?

Wow. Just remember; if you do that and change your mind later, you can't come back to haunt us again IRL. Seriously, you clearly need professional help, before you do something real on a hot impule and leave your loved ones to deal with the fallout. Get help. You need it.

OK, breakins are one thing, and I sincerely understand your feeling violated. But really, burlaries are nothing personal. All they want is your stuff. It's another thing all together to have a gun shoved in your face. I've been robbed at gunpoint 5 times (managing pizza joints in my younger days.) Now that's hard not to take personally! And it was such a bad part of Houton (Telephone Rd, near Hobby Airport) that one time, when we called for the cops to come, they never showed up. They did call us back three hours later to tell us that they would send a form for us to fill out and mail in. Evidently, even they were afraid to come out to our location. Protect and serve? Hardly. But I guess at that point, since the robbers were gone, they must have figured we didn't need protection anymore. And yes, I worked retail for 15 years. The various stores I worked in got burlged a total of 13 times. My varous places I called home, in different cities, have been burgled 4 times. My car has been broken into twice and I was mugged once on the street (also Houston.) For awhile there, I was sure I was listed in the yellow pages under 'Victims.' I've gone to court for my stores to prosecute 7 employees for internal theft, and more than 100 shoplifters, and lost only once, for lack of evidence. Only one of the perps got time. 3-5 years, because he had 4 priors. And as a retail manager, I've been on the recieving end of every insane, drunken irate nutcase imaginable. I've had my entire crew of 15 walk out after one robbery, and my distric manager still said I have to keep the joint open, with no one but myself to run it! So excuse me if I'm a bit jaded on this topic. Still I have every respect for the job most cops try to do for us. Because as bad as the crap I've seen was, I know they deal with much worse every day, probably for less money than some of the mgt positions I've held. I can only imagine what that would be like and I'm thankful I'm not them.

Did you take BOTH buckles? um, yeah. I did have a momentary twinge of guilt, but there was lots of nice swag in that cache, and I knew how much my friend would appreciate those buckles. So I rationalized it to myself that since they weren't for me, it was less greedy somehow. Can you tell I was raised Catholic? But I got better.

Caching at the Chain of Rocks Bridge in St Louis at Christmas, my sister's Jeep got broken into while we were hiking. They smashed out her driver's side window. We had all the good stuff with us, except for her Palm Pilot from work. They got that, and not much else, but then we had to drive home 30 miles with no window in December. A friend of hers is a St. Louis cop, and he said that parking lot is one of the 3 worst places in the city for breakins. And yes, we logged the breakin on the cache page, and its only been visited once since then. Too bad; it's a beautiful natural location that happened to have a rough neighborhood built around it.

I have a few FTFs. The reason I like to get there first, or at least one of the first, is because most hiders care enough to put nice swag in when they place the cache. You often find good stuff if you get there before it's all traded for mctoys and golf balls. In one I found 2 nice railroading belt buckles, which I gave to a friend of mine who used to be an train engineer and collects such things. (yes, I did my best to trade even.) And often, there are travel bugs. I like travel bugs! Can't explain it; I just do. I placed a cache today (still awaiting approval.) Watch for the Nice Swag Cache in a day or two. The theme is that, as a thank you to central Indiana cachers for the hides they've placed for me to find, I filled the cache with nice swag, and ask finders to leave only items with some value to them. So, if you are FTF to this cache, you can choose between items of gold, sterling silver, turquoise, fine bone china, art glass and a big hunk of petrified redwood. But come prepared to reciprocate, in appreciation of the cachers who will follow. Of course, finders may always choose to TNLNSL if they prefer.

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remember that cold weather drains batteries, often overnight. So then, those previously cool and appreciated batteries become lame dead ones.

A number of the webcam caches need two people: 1 on a cell phone at the site, and one on a computer at home, to answer the cell phone and print the webcam pic.

Ony found 2 out of 5 today, but it was fun anyway. The snow is fresh and very pretty; deer and rabbit racks are everywhere. One search had me crossing a floodplain that had frozen; and the sheets of ice riding atop the underbrush were so brittle, I'd crash through it up to my knees in places. No water underneath, just shrouded underbrush hiding perilous pitfalls. So, I followed the deer tracks and learned that even if I can't see the trail, the deer know where it is; they're the ones who put it there in the first place, and they travel these trails to the river every day. I didn't hit anymore pitfalls. Then I stood on the edge of the river, and my GPSr said the cache was 100 ft directly in front of me, evidently on a small island in the river. The river was partially frozen, but not enough to attempt the find. Here's a pic. http://www.geocaching.com/seek/log.aspx?lu...E-D00B66FD417B}

I think I should be able to deduct it all, including the new boots and digital camera, as a medical deduction, because it's helped me lose alot of weight in the last year, and so gain control of the diabetes. Yeah, that's the ticket! What do all you lawyers amonst us think about that?

1.3 miles. It's a multi. I found the first part, and have sought the last part several times, but now I think I have the answer and can find it when the snow's gone. I recently found a couple of hides that were georocks. When I searched this one, I didn't know about those things. I Think it's gotta be a rock, or something of that nature, but I know I won't find that one in the snow. I won't post the link, as I don't want to publish a possible spoiler. The second and 3rd closest DNFs (3.2 and 3.3 miles) require a boat. Sigh.

Is this what you wanted? The cords are posted under the map. http://www.maporama.com/share/map.asp?SESS...RCH_ADDRESS.y=9 Or if you just wanted nearby caches to seek, search by zipcode 40324. Hope that helps.

In Brown County Sate Park in Indiana, they have an annual deer 'harvest.' There's an outcry every year, but TPTB say it's in the deer's best interest, becuause they are so out of control in population that they are starving themselves to death. They cite disease, and of course, unfortunate human encounters like the ones described here. I'm no bleeding heart, and I understand the need to keep their numbers in check, but I sure did enjoy it last week when I was logging a cache in an Indianapolis inner city park and a pair of deer come hightailing it down the game trail I was following. They didn't see me, where I was off trail a bit, logging the cache, until they were just a few yards away. They stopped short for a fraction of a second, looked one another in the eye and took off fast in a different direction. Made my day. And yes, I am cognizant of the fact that, being in an inner city park, they are at even greater risk of a traffic accident. Just saying: find beauty in the day where ever you can, and hope man and beast survive to enjoy the next.

Does your area have a Galyans or Dave's sporting goods? They both carry Merrells, and others of course. Galyans will match the competitor's price. I printed off a sale page I found on the Internet and got my $110 Merrells for $49(they are lasy year's Summitt, and not this years Summitt II, but who cares about things like that if they fit? Not me! Not for no $60!). Really! Should have seen the salesman's jaw drop. But they honored their policy.

Today, I decided to go hunting for 3 caches that were DNF's when I started caching late last summer. And guess what? I found all three of them easily. Experience pays off. I had better eyes this time, because now I know how to think like a cache. (OK, it helped that it's winter, and two of them were in dense undergrowth areas.) But still. My point: DO log the DNF, so that later, you can look them up in your log file, and try again, after you get a few more finds under your belt. Bet if you try again in a few months, you'll find it. And wear high-topped boots and thick jeans to protect your legs against those thorns. A walking stick helps; you can use it to bushwack the undergrowth.

Just listed a new hide today: Your ARC. 32 minutes from posting to approval! Thanks, Mountain Climber. You're my hero.

Bought my Merrell Summit boots late last summer, and am very happy with them. They have air cushion insoles, so there is lots of cushioning. And they have great arch support, which matters alot for me, as I have very high arches, and have a hard time finding a boots that gives me the arch support and side wall support I need. They list for around $120 but Ive seen them much lower. Why look , here's one now: http://www.trackandtrail.com/Catalog/buyde...ype=B&BrandId=1

At my cache, Elk Hollow in Lone Elk Park, cachers are always giving animal sighting in the logs. Of course, the elk feature promently, and you can hike among them, tho they mostly avoid you. We saw a flock of wild turkeys, about 8 of them, on the day we placed the cache. Then there's this guy, picture posted to the logs by Wooly Bugger and Bean. The buffalo are in a spearate part of the park from the cache, and visitors must stay in their cars in that section. Not sure how to post a link, so here's the url. Sorry for my ignorance. I'd look it up, but I'm out of time today. http://www.geocaching.com/seek/log.aspx?II...049&LID=2592905

A 1 inch pearlized turban seashell pendant, edged in 24 kt gold; exquisite. And I've been a shell collector for many years. I wear it often.

Yet another good reinforcement of my personal motto: Never get married, never have kids. I cache when and where I please, and answer to no one. Life is simple, uncomplicated, unfettered and it's MINE! ALL MINE! (oh, yeah, life is also selfish and, very rarely, lonely. But as trade offs go, I'll take it.) Go ahead, flame me. I can take it.

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