Steve&GeoCarolyn
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Posts posted by Steve&GeoCarolyn
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Always trade up or trade even. I currently have for trade:
- Foriegn coin packets
- matchbox cars
- mini beanie animals
- rubber ducks
- screwdrivers (out of a 50 pack)
- emergency ponchos
- mini tape measure
- misc. dollar store items
Thank you so much for this, StarBrand. So much of what we see here is a list of terrible things people have put in caches and it makes it difficult for those of us who are new to understand what would be good. Your list makes it much easier to picture the right sort of things to leave.
We don't take much from caches (since we are trying to declutter the house) but we love leaving things in them in anticipation of someone finding something that makes them happy. Our stash bag currently has:
[*]Giant Monkey Erasers
[*]Sparkling Butterfly Clip-Ons
[*]Large Tube of Shimmering Beads (enough to make a friendship bracelet)
[*]Watercolor Paint Set
[*]Mini Marker Set
[*]Mini Colored Pencil Set
[*]Small Lockets
[*]Small Stuffed Lions that roar when squeezed
[*]Large Locket
[*]Large Snake Charm (for a necklace)
Everything is individually packed in ziplock bags.
If I were a young geocacher I would most want to find sparkly things or jewelry and since I know that my nieces are all fanatical shoppers at Claire's (making me think that a love of jewelry is nearly universal among little girls) my plan is to haunt the sales at Claire's and build up a stash of bracelets and necklaces that I can put in caches.
Also, I usually put a large, copper bellydance costume coin in caches as a signature item. This is temporary until I have the perfect signature item to leave.
I'd be very curious to know what is in other people's stash bags.
Carolyn
- Foriegn coin packets
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It doesn't sound to me like you're doing it wrong
Keep doing what you like doing IMO... I think that finding a cache as a team is great and doesnt require every person to go and find it individually. I actually don't know anyone who has this as a RULE for their caching. Sometimes people will spot the cache and not tell anyone else (and make it a known that nobody will tell anyone else) so that everyone gets the experience of finding the actual cache... But i'd say that based on what you just posted that if anyone tells you you're doing it wrong, they dont understand that youre just doing it differently than they do.Thank you! I appreciate the vote of confidence. We really like geocaching and this change in our online presence from individuals to a team entity makes both of us happier and more comfortable.
Carolyn
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When I picked my name (GeoCarolyn) I had hoped to pick something as anonymous and unmemorable as possible without being so unmemorable that I couldn't remember it. Also, it had to be easy to type. I'd wanted "Carolyn" since that seems dull enough to be invisible but since it's my name I'd always remember it. But it wasn't available, so I picked GeoCarolyn.
My beloved and I cache as a team and we are pretty comfortable doing things together or trading off on what one can do and the other can't. We've done this for nearly thirty years and it's natural for us. It is difficult for us to see ourselves as separate individuals rather than as two parts of a whole.
Since reading these boards I've come to realize some uncomfortable facts about the way we cache. It appears we are doing this wrong. As near as I can tell from reading many of the posts here if one person spots a cache but the other doesn't, the first person must wait until the other spots it independently, otherwise both cannot claim the cache. Second, each person must independently remove the cache from the hiding place. Third, both must log the cache online and within the cache itself.
Well this just doesn't work for us. We have different abilities, different heights, and different preferences. We naturally move to help each other before even thinking about it. When we solve puzzles we solve them together and it is often hard to figure out who solved what. When something is too high for me that he can easily reach, he pulls it down. We're a team.
He hates logging caches online. It is deeply unpleasant work to him that is reminiscent of his day job (which he is trying to escape by geocaching). He doesn't care about numbers and doesn't enjoy the writing.
I love logging caches, writing my log, reading other people's logs, processing and uploading photos, running a fog index on the prose, and so forth. I love the preplanning, running pocket queries, reading the cache pages, pulling everything up in Google maps or Google Earth and doing anything else I can do with the computer.
He just wants to walk in the woods and is content with any plan I make as long as it includes a walk in the wild and not too many micros and as long as I don't expect him to deal much with the computer. He rescues me from snakes, keeps me from getting hurt outdoors, and is quite good at finding our way.
We considered these facts and realized that while we were deficient as individuals, we were perfect as a team and should therefore have a team name instead of individual accounts. So we are now Steve&GeoCarolyn. Yay Team!
Carolyn
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Just a test.
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OK. It looks like it was a problem with the change in how Groundspeak is formatting the files. The developer fixed that problem and put out a new version of GCStatistic. The new version solves the problem. My recommendation is that you download the latest version. (Version 1.3.2 is the latest.)
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Hey yall,
I downloaded GCStatistic the other day and i have done everything that I can think of to make it work but it wont. So any help would be greatly appreciated. I am on a macbook pro 15in running Tiger version 10.4.11 Thanks
Hi,
You don't say what sort of problem/error you are getting. That would probably help people troubleshoot.
I've been using that program as well. My experience has been that it worked fine up until this week. This week the program tells me that I have selected the "wrong file".
I did a compare of last week's myfinds pocket query and this week's and they look like they are formatted differently. I am looking to see if there are other differences. But my guess is that it is something freaky that happened to this week's myfinds query rather than anything wrong with the program itself. You might want to try it again next week and see if it is improved.
Carolyn
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I'm so delighted that others also name their devices. Our Garmin Oregon is named Genie because it is quicker to say than "GPS Device" and because she magically points the way to the treasure for us.
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We are still new to this and we have found that sometimes we go out and find 2 out of 3 caches we look for, sometimes we go out and find 1 out of 4, sometimes we find 3 out of 4, and a few times we've come up empty. I've decided that this must be the case with others and that there are simply a lot of people who don't log Did Not Find results.
There have been a few days when we thought we would go home with all Did Not Finds and as a result hunted the last cache like maniacs. One cache took us an hour of searching to find (in addition to the 45 minute hike). Predictably, the very next person who found that cache wrote that he saw it immediately after a quick ten-minute walk to the site. My heart absolutely sank in despair at how bad we are at this game. But then my beloved pointed out that we had a great deal of fun, got quite a bit of exercise that day, and possibly enjoyed it more than the person who found it quickly and those are the things that really matter.
We have become noticeably better as we've learned to think differently. My beloved now looks at a landscape and asks himself, "What part of the landscape would make a good place to hide a cache?" I look around and ask myself, "Which feature of this landscape would make me feel insufferably smug if I managed to hide a cache there?" He is noticeably better at finding micros than I am. But we both enjoy the regulars and smalls better. It is also easier as you become used to the size and shape of the containers the hiders tend to use because it immediately rules out large portions of the landscape as impossible.
One other thing to consider is to change your perspective on occasion. I carry a camera with me. One day, as I was taking pictures, I decided that the tree my beloved was currently searching (and had been searching for quite a while) would make a nice shot. So I laid down under the tree and pointed my camera up at the branches. I glanced over at my beloved and at that moment I spotted the cache. It was easy to see from flat on my back, but nearly impossible to find when vertical.
Good luck in your hunt!
Carolyn
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Thank you all for the information! I appreciate it.
I haven't come across anything as unique as a fake sprinkler head, hollow rock, fake pine cones, etc. But the size and shape of one of the caches we found this weekend would clearly indicate that it could only be hidden one place in the vicinity (I didn't post a photo of it). Another cache was hidden in a feature of the landscape that is kind of big and obvious when you connect it with the name of the cache. (Though finding the micro within it was a bit tricky.) Another one today has a description that reads, "You are looking for the large bald cypress tree" and when one arrives, it is at a flat field with one large bald cypress tree in the middle and a few smaller ones clustering near the large one. It was pretty obvious from the text where to go. So given that, how does one take photos that give nothing away?
These are the caches that started me thinking about this as a problem. Most of the places we've gone have been indistinguishable. One tree looks much like another tree. Nearby tulips or flowering trees are not unique. Ducks, dogs, and other living creatures can be relied upon to be gone by the time the next geocacher arrives. Vast swaths of landscape caught in pictures usually don't reveal anything special. It's when the landscape is unique and mentioned in the text that I worry.
Thank you for mentioning your photos, Briansnat. I looked in your gallery and I see that you have dealt with a similar situation by posting the picture in this one: http://www.geocaching.com/seek/log.aspx?LU...f1-23d9d79317bd That's one of the situations that caused me to wonder whether it is ok to post a photo.
Carolyn
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We just started geocaching and I've been taking photos and posting them in my logs. But I'm worried that some of them might be spoilers and I don't want to ruin anyone's fun. I'm not taking any pictures of caches in their hiding places, but some of my photos would make it easier for someone to find the cache and some cache containers are distinctive. Is it ok to post spoiler photos? Should I clearly label a photo that I think might be a spoiler as such? Or do I even need to label them since there is a warning that spoilers might be in the logs?
Also, are there any other bits of geochaching photography etiquette I should know? Is there any sort of preference that cache owners have when people are photographing cache locations? I checked around the forum and the Geocaching.com resources and didn't find anything. So if you have advice or a pointer to a website, it would be much appreciated.
Thanks!
Carolyn
Keep doing what you like doing IMO... I think that finding a cache as a team is great and doesnt require every person to go and find it individually. I actually don't know anyone who has this as a RULE for their caching. Sometimes people will spot the cache and not tell anyone else (and make it a known that nobody will tell anyone else) so that everyone gets the experience of finding the actual cache... But i'd say that based on what you just posted that if anyone tells you you're doing it wrong, they dont understand that youre just doing it differently than they do.
My hometown in my public profile
in How do I...?
Posted · Edited by Steve&GeoCarolyn
Here's how:
Go to your profile page (not the public profile).
On the right hand side somewhat down the page is something that says "View My Account Details". Click that.
The first box in the upper right hand corner is titled: "My Profile". In that box's upper right corner is the word "Change". It is next to "Change my Password". Click "Change".
That is where you are given the opportunity to put your location in such a way that it appears in your public profile.
Hope that helps!
Carolyn