thekimballs

They're in their package and then in a ziploc--still too damp? I've been liking the idea of batteries because GPSs seem to run out at the least opportune moment, but I won't buy them again if they cause problems.

I've taught the kids to trade WAY up if we can. They get a kick out of imagining people being really pleased with what they find. One thing we've started doing is bagging all unpackaged swag. That keeps it nice and clean and hopefully people will want it. Our "cheap" swag is a band-aid kit--it has a packaged wipe, single-use antibiotic cream, and three good fabric bandaids. We managed to do it for about $.25 each by ordering in bulk from Amazon. We also leave Target $1 batteries, Wal-Mart ponchos, biners, nice small toys, and paperback books. Once we run out of books, I'm going to do kennel leads (collar/leash combos that are good to have in your pack even if you don't have a dog, just in case you come across a stray or even just need some webbing to tie something down); dog dot com has them for a good price.

It's a beautiful coin. Can I be a downer (a downer and a professional proofreader and editor) and say that the sentence is not grammatically correct? Should be It is beauty that captures your attention, personality that captures your heart OR It is beauty that captures your attention; personality captures your heart Now that you have the samples, if the wording can't be changed I am sure only those of us who are persnickety grammar mavens will notice. But if it can easily be changed, all the English majors will thank you!

The vast majority of ticks you'll see in the woods are dog ticks and don't carry Lyme. It's the tick you don't see, the tiny deer tick that can be right in front of you and you think it's a speck of dirt, that latches on and stays long enough to give you Lyme. So yeah, flick them off and do regular tick checks, but don't think that just because you didn't see a tick you can't have the disease. So far no humans in this family with Lyme, but three dogs (and the last one had Lyme AND anaplasmosis). Don't neglect a yearly Lyme test for the dogs in your family, and if the dogs are in the woods a lot consider doing it in the early spring and the late fall. Since it takes several weeks for the blood to test positive, the spring test catches the ticks the dog was exposed to during the fall, and the fall test checks for exposures during the spring/summer. My doctor told me that they're seeing a lot of "moving" rashes--red, white center, like an enormous hives attack, and then it's gone two hours later and then pops up in another spot. So don't only look for the bulls-eye.

We've been walking with kids since forever, only geocached recently but I think the advice is about the same. We have four girls, from 11 to 4 mos. - I don't do a terrain rating over 2.5. It just gets discouraging for the kids and the three-year-old gets too tired. We also don't do micros; they said it would be no fun for them after I explained what they were. - A third or half-mile walk in and the same out is just about right. Takes about 45 minutes total and is enough to stretch everybody out and tire out the toddler but not so long that we're carrying her. - Count on at least 10 minutes at the cache while the toddler pores over each and every item and considers a trade. Remember that for them, this is the whole point of the walk, and getting the best and exactly appropriate toy is a BIG DEAL. Let the toddler pick out a trade item to leave in--many kids that age really can understand that the toy you leave needs to be as good as the toy you take, but if not then just make sure to present a few options that are all appropriate. - Involve them in the game. My three-year-old can now tell you exactly what a cache is, what an ammo can looks like, what the function of a travel bug is, what a geocoin is, etc. Her job when we get to the cache is to dig out any TBs, and she carries them back to the car. My older kids are getting at least a little more into the hiking aspect, but for her it's still entirely about the treasure and, to a lesser extent, TBs. - Carriers have turned out to be critical, especially when we want or need to move faster than a toddler's walking speed. We have been quite displeased with frame pack kid carriers; they don't fit either of us well (smack me in the back of the head, hurt his belly) and the $$ for an adjustable frame one is unreasonable considering that the behavior of the kids isn't conducive to frame packs. The toddler wants up and down several times on each leg, and getting her into and out of the frame pack is a five-minute wait every time. Drives me nuts. So we've switched to Asian-style baby carriers that tie on; I carry the baby on my front and he carries the toddler on his back. I can lift her in and out of his carrier in about three seconds, and he just leaves it tied on all the time. My fave for this is a brand called Bamberoo, which is available on etsy.com. The body and shoulder straps are wide and lightly padded and make carrying very easy. - Most days she carries her own Camelbak (the tiny one, I think it's called the Sparkle). She'll walk the whole way sucking on the end of that thing. As you can imagine, we've had lots of experience finding toddler-friendly pee spots on the woods! But giving her that to carry has totally changed her attitude; she calls it "hiking" now and is much more willing to walk. - I absolutely agree that when they're done, you're done. It is INCREDIBLY rewarding to walk and cache with kids if you have the appropriate tools and attitude; if you don't, it's a frelling nightmare. We try to make sure it's the first and not the second, or we don't go.

Can someone give concrete examples of not-terribly-expensive trade items that are still acceptable? We cache with three kids who are old enough to want to trade, go out pretty frequently, and of course everybody's got to trade something, so as much as I'd love to carry around masses of $5 items it just isn't practical. We're very new; so far we've left behind carabiners, earrings, pocket calculator, collector keychain, etc. I did a lot of reading before we started geocaching, so we always trade even or trade up. But we are just about out of stuff "around the house" that was in excellent condition and ready to move on, so we will now be buying items. Here's what I was considering; are these what would be considered acceptable/good trade? - pocket tape measure - small flashlight - pack of $1 batteries (is it OK that they're cheap? Or because they're not brand-name would they be rejected?) - kennel leads (soft webbing collar/leash) - band-aid kits (5 band-aids and a packet of antibiotic ointment) - carabiners (or are these so common that they're basically useless?) Are paperback books really OK? Even "trashy novels"? What about kids' books? (All in good/excellent condition, of course) Are there pen brands/types that are valued trade items? It seems like every cache has pens in the bottom, slowly degrading into goo. What kind will actually be taken and used? How about dollar tools? I see little chuck keys, bit sets, etc. all the time, but I feel like cheap tools may be worse than none at all. After all, the point is to have the items leave the cache quickly, and not sit and rust. Would small packets of baby wipes (the good thick kind) be useful? And, since all of the above are "adult," what toys are hot and popular? My kids are so thrilled by the whole thing that they're taking year-old broken toys and freaking out with joy. Obviously, we need to place better ones than that. So what Oriental Trading-type stuff is going to leave a cache fast? Thanks so much for reading a long post! Hopefully we'll put in swag that impresses and doesn't depress.

This thread is worth delurking on: Geocaching is more expensive than sitting on your butt watching TV, but on the grand scale it's pretty low. Because we have three kids we have more $$ in trade items than I'd honestly like to be spending, and we did have to go get trekking poles so I can safely carry the baby on my front and not worry about falling on her, but other than that it's been $80 for a clearanced Garmin and a little bit in gas for what has been a very fun first couple of weeks and looks to become a hobby for years to come. I have been looking for CinemaBoxers' response on this--I'm another one who does dogs, and they are SUPER expensive. We spend between $5-10,000/yr when we *don't* breed, and substantially more than that in the years when we have a litter. And we're small potatoes--I've got little kids and we're not wealthy, so I can't do more than maybe ten weekends a year. Those who are out every weekend and have a dog or two that they are specialing can spend five grand just in ads. Add in all the rescue work we in the dog community do (the dog equivalent of CITO--if you don't rescue, don't breed) and it's crazy money. It's kind of ironic--I gasp at how much it costs to mint geocoins, but if I have the money (and often if I don't) I'll buy a $1200 8-week-old puppy in a heartbeat.