Birdsong-n-Bud

--------------- We have a couple caches up for adoption in the Sturbridge/Southbridge, MA area. We prefer that they are adopted by someone who has already done them. If you adopt them, we'll email you all the data on each cache. If you're interested, please email me privately (rather than here in the forums) at birdsong123(at)aol(dot)com. 1) Walks Like an Egyptian cache (GCNY60). It doesn't appear to need any maintenance, but the army corps sent me the following email (below), and I just don't have the time to meet with him. 2) Swallowed Whole (GCM5AK), one of my first caches, I'm sad to see this one go, but the Army Corps also wants to visit this one. It's in Southbridge at Westville Dam. Easy to maintain if you live in the area. Does not need any maintenance at this time. If you are interested in adopting any of these caches, let me know privately and I'll send all the necessary electronic files with all the information on the sites that was posted for the website and the administrator (answers to the puzzles, etc.) Adopting these will require a visit with the Army Corps as indicated below, just to show they are in a safe place (and both are very safe). Thanks so much, and have a wonderful holiday season. Birdsong-n-Bud -============ note from the army corps below ===================== This message was sent through http://www.geocaching.com -- Geocacher, The Army Corps of Engineers, East Brimfield Lake project office, is initiating a new program to help us keep track of the many geocaches that are placed on Corps land at the East Brimfield, Westville, and Conant Brook flood control areas. The program requires that all geocaches placed on Corps property be approved by our office and issued a free permit. A permit will only be issued after the cache location has been inspected and recorded by a Park Ranger from our project. Please note that we are not trying to discourage geocaching on Corps property. It is a fun and unique way to enjoy the trails and lands at our projects. The goals of this program are to keep us aware of the caches that we have on the property, to be sure that the caches are hidden in safe locations and away from any hazardous areas, and to help us improve communication with the geocache community. Please contact Park Ranger Matthew Coleman via email at Matthew.S.Coleman@usace.army.mil for information about obtaining a permit the caches you currently have on corps land. This would specifically be the "Walks Like an Egyptian" cache near Brimfield Dam, and the "Swallowed Whole" cache at Westville Rec Area. Again, the permits are free of charge, and are now required for all caches on Corps property. Thank you very much for your cooperation, Matthew Coleman Park Ranger E. Brimfield/Westville Lakes User's Profile: http://www.geocaching.com/profile/?guid=a6...07-e3565e4846ab

Since my husband won't go (insert a big RASPBERRY here), I'll gladly settle for a helping of Steven Tyler in some remote woods with a babbling stream. (but he'd be forbidden from wearing any black nail polish on the walk). Oh, wait..Johnny Depp would make for a great day, too. As long as he wears that Pirate get-up. Mmmm, shweeeeet.Hummina-hummina. Can I choose two? I was never good at decisions. Can it be a multi cache?

ROFL! I've gotta read more slowly. I thought that said "circumsized!?" lol One word for me: FREEDOM!!!

I agree. Puzze/mystery/unknown wouldn't fit, but if there was a name for something that required a little something extra, that would probably satisfy everyone.

I LOVE cemetary caches. Visiting a cemetary is like reading an excellent historic novel. I think it is a great way to show respect to the parted. If they weren't meant to be visited, they'd be locked up. That said, I wouldn't want to bring the family dog there out of respect for the families of the deceased, and the cache should be placed out of bounds of the cemetery so there is no pulling, stomping on, or prodding around flowers, graves and such. We've done cemetary caches and loved them, we have a couple of our own, and find neat, neat information every time we do one. By the way, check out this fella's name at one of our cemetery caches:

We have 3 Garmin GPSr's: The Rino The Venture the Yellow All are good, and all will bring you to the spot. We got all of them for under $120 each at Ebay. I love the way the plain old yellow one navigates BUT I wouldn't recommend it. It takes a very tedious process to program it. However, I've never attached the cable to it with GSAK, so maybe it is quicker to do than I realize. The Venture and the Rino program faster. The Rino takes 3 batteries instead of 2, but if I disable the radio feature, its battery life will far outlive the GPSr's with only 2 batteries, so it is worth it to me. It also functions as a walkie-talkie, and you can locate where other members of your team are if they're not right with you.

I really like this one a lot. It is very "ASL" and makes perfect sense. It's like saying "Stash hidden under" or "container hidden."

This isn't directed at you, but at everyone here who is whining over additional requirements: Then don't do it! Cache hiders are good enough to get the ammo box, set up the cache...and PROVIDE the sport for you. There's lots out there to do, skip it if you don't think it looks like fun. If you don't want to play the game, who's force-feeding you? I saw an expression this week, and it reminds me of the forums. "Every argument is really people saying, 'If you were more like me, I'd really like you a whole lot more.' " Enjoy the diverse richness of caches. Imagine if they were all the SAME? Variety is the spice of life. Appreciate the ones that stand out to you. Ignore the ones that don't look delicious. We all come in different sizes, shapes and colors, and it'd be a shame if caches didn't, too. If you don't want to go to Spain, don't book the flight! There are a lot of other places to go.

This is from the book, American Sign Language Dictionary," revised edition (by Martin L.A. Sternberg). What was the embarrasing way I learned this sign? I work with the Deaf and am immersed in sign every day. When I was first learning sign 15 years ago, I tried to tell a boy he was "handsome." It is the same as this sign, but the index finger should be crooked, to represent a square chin. I extended the index finger straight out, and instantly there were gasps and wide eyes and shocked reactions. "WHAT?!? WHAT??! What did I just sign?!?!!" Happened to me many times than one with other "close but not quite" signs! I won't even tell you the other ones I goofed. I'd stick with the letters G.C. for the sign here, lol.

Markwell, you are too late - the majority of caches hidden these day suck as far as location placement. ================= Okay, so that leads me to ask: What -- in your opionions -- is a "good" vs. a "bad" cache placement? If it follows the guidelines, what is bad? I think it's a pretty amazing, generous, and time-consuming gift he's given there. I'd be grateful and enthusiastic to receive one at a geomeet, and we have several good placements out there. I think it's all in the spirit of geocaching.

By far the most amusing one to me is The 4x4 Hillbilly Hide. (GCPYFP) We live nowhere near it and have been watching it just to receive the hilarious logs. http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_detai...0b-2ca37aeaa832 My kinda cache!

Yuck! Well, that *stinks!* We found a defunct letterbox near a cache, and when we opened it, the inkpad had exploded and WHOA...the smell! It was if something died in there. I got the ink all over myself, and the smell would not come off! GAG HACK CHOKE Wasn't as bad when we stepped into a heaping pile of horse dung on another trail...

This is from: http://www.idahostatesman.com/apps/pbcs.dl...D=2005509280313 And the article starts: A high-tech scavenger hunt caused a traffic nightmare Tuesday when a bomb scare shut down part of Idaho 55 for about six hours while authorities investigated what turned out to be a bucket with a global positioning device inside under the Rainbow Bridge. Idaho Transportation Department inspectors doing a routine bridge-safety inspection at the bridge north of Smiths Ferry about 10 a.m. noticed an object "they couldn't identify," ITD spokesman Mike Maller said. The inspectors called the Valley County Sheriff's Office and closed the highway to traffic; the Boise police bomb squad and Idaho State Police also were called to the scene. The highway is the main commuter route between Boise and McCall and traffic was backed up for miles. The suspicious object turned out to be a geocache, a container with a GPS tracking device used for a kind of scavenger hunt called geocaching. Players hide GPS units for others to find, Idaho State Police spokesman Rick Ohnsman said.

Thank you. I don't know how I missed that. Much appreciated.

Hi everyone, A search of the forums did not prove successful for me. I hope you can help. How do I take a cache of mine that is "Members Only," and change it to a cache that all visitors can see? I wanted it MO for the first month, and then hoped to open it to everyone after that. I can't seem to find the process to deactivate its MO status. Thanks for any help.

I can see the fun of using a CD toward a multi goal or a puzzle cache. However, as mentioned above, many people are wary of putting something like that into their computer. Can't blame 'em. However in terms of music or movies...there are some caches devoted to exchanging movies or music. One of my favorite cache titles is one we have not far from here called "The Crappy Music Cache." One of our caches features music CD's in it with samples of the songs on which the cache is based. People have been enjoying that. I'd worry about tape cassette's getting damp, or videos similar problems....that would ultimately damage the equipment into which they are played. But CD's make a great medium that can be cleaned and dried.

Oh, this one was an easy choice for me!! You wrote: Jeeeeeeez, Sept1C,I was TRYING so hard to be a lady and NOT notice that!!!! lol ;) That comes from here. Hahahahahaha!

Okay, I guess that leads me to another dumb question: how do I convince it I'm at point A if I'm not there?

Wow...that is awesome! I had no idea what I was doing, but that is an awesome premise for a puzzle! Impressive!

I have more puzzle ideas than there are places to put them. I worry about using areas that others have already chosen for caches. I like people to feel they have some ownership of the area they've hidden their geocache. Basically, the bottom line for many of my puzzles is...how do you turn something that may not appear to be a number INTO a number? We have other puzzle twists that may not seem so obvious at first glance(GCM07T Grizzly Grave). Ones that people have visited most are those that use symbols that can be looked up (and we added a twist to those, too, but they still managed to decypher them accurately). The trick is: Do you want people to be able to figure out some of the numbers by picking out the obvious? For example, if it has to be placed within 2 miles of the posted false coords, do you want them to use the first several digits that may be repeated again in the later digits to confirm that they are on the right track? Or do you want it to be more vague and not use the first digits for confirmation? We've done a little of both to attract both beginners and advanced puzzle solvers. And that's as much as I can tell anyone without having to lock you up in a closet because you have my secret information, lol. Some of our puzzles seemed to have really obvious to solve as I made them, but still folks have difficulty with them. It's almost hard to judge how difficult it will be to someone else until people start doing them. I do agree that many people do seem to have puzzle phobia. It doesn't stop the ideas from flowing, though. We have to obey the compulsion and get them out there (grin). Some of our puzzles: Tally Sticks Walks Like an Egyptian The Prophet Maestro's Mystery Measures Lost in Translation (on the Rooster's Shift) In the Tentacles of the Alien Clarence, can you see the light? And more to come.

Can anyone help me with a **stupid** question? How do I measure the distance between 2 coordinates to approximate how far they are apart before I go?

Wildbird did it. I told him about Letterboxing, and that we wanted to try it. He basically said, "Pfft!" And plugged in some numbers into his GPSr and said, "Go try this." So we blindly followed this arrow thing and were blissful at the reward! We did a few and bought a GPSr of our own by the next week. We now have three.

For awhile, we used very smooth worry stones (smooth as a marble) with a stenciled bird on it for our sig item. We tried applying every possible type of protective medium on top of the stone to protect the paint, but the picture would still rub off if someone placed it in a sweaty pocket. I would soak one overnight to see if it would withstand a wet cache box. Nope. So then I considered etching on it, but found that the price of doing so would be astronomical. Soooooo....we switched to hand-painted wooden nickels, lol. I hope you're able to find a better solution than we did, and would love to see a picture of the end result once yours is complete. It sounds like a marvelous idea for a signature item. About our sig item switch: About 4 samples of our coins can be viewed at Nurse Dave's site (3rd adn 4th row). Our coins are constantly being updated, and these are the "batch before last." And the front side of our card is here.

I liked Bob the chicken! We have one (er...4) of those, too! (a cockatiel, 2 budgies and a conure). They've posed in some TB photos for us and helped us log our finds online. Here's Baxter & Lucy, heads of cache sniffing. We had a TB that wanted to see the latest coture of the folks who hosted her. So we put on a fashion show. No laughing. Okay, g'head. Can you see how utterly humiliated they look in this picture? lol Usually it's a bandana and nothin' else. Elbie the conure: Zekie, our blind budgie (TB welcoming committee) (and Sunny, administrative assistant, not pictured): And Harley, my queen princess and cache logging supervisor, terrified of a tb on her playground:

I have to agree. I'm an extremely dedicated and even over-protective parent. My son is very attached to me, and at 9 years old (as of this weekend), he goes nowhere without me. I'm the kind of parent who has to walk with him everywhere as I won't let him out of my sight. I'll take him into a lady's room in a department store if there is no "family" bathroom. I won't let him into a men's room alone. While I would never write his name on his shirt or backpack, because an unknown person could call him by name at school or something, I find NO danger in posting his picture on cache pages. I am so proud of him, and he is such an enthusiastic guy. His real name is unknown by those who seek, our location is unknown, and we don't broadcast when/where we'll be caching next. Without knowing his name or location, and never being near him, how is he in danger??? People see kids all over the world, mine is just another having fun with his family. He doesn't use the internet, so no one can solicit him.