farrtom

Have converted another friend (and his son) to geocaching. What has started out for me as a fun way to learn how to use the gps units our scout troop purchesed has turned into a great hobby for me and my kids. Now I enjoy telling others about it and watching them get involved.

I am placing the order today! If you are interested in ordering this coin, please send me a message. Here are photos of the additional samples. These will be the special edition / artist edition of the coins and will not be for sale, but the darker transparnt blue will be used on all coins (see other sample photos to compare). (i have no idea why these are rotated. I have tried to fix them.......)

Our new bugs: Colby's Hammer Fore and atomicwaffles27 (my daughter) launched Canard de Voyage The three are in a race back to our cache. We were so excited to launch them that we didn't take very good pictures. I also didn't glue the chain shut or get them put into zip lock bags like I had planned on doing. We launched them while on a family vacation and we ended up going by the cache to launch them a couple of days earlier then we originally planned on.

Good advice. I picked up a TB from a cache then went to log the TB and it said it was in NM and I picked it up in MT. It has been almost 2 months since it was last discovered in the NM cache. I will do a quick note and dip on the cache I found it in so it can log the miles it traveled.

I have shared this one on other topics, but I realy like it so, my first entry......

Maybe I missed this, but how do we find out if there is an event in our area?

Discovered our first Car TB in AB Canada. We actually saw it the first day we got there on the highway but were unable to see the tracking code (and did not want to end up like the pic's above!) and did not get the camara out fast enough, BUT we did see it a couple of days later in a parking lot and took a picture and logged as discovered.

Also, there will be a slight change to the blue color on the engine side of the coin. I will post photos soon.

No pre-sale, just a pre-order to help us decide on order quantity.

We are ready to place the order for the Evanston Roundhouse coin! Since this is our first time doing a coin, we are still trying to decide the order quantity. To help us decide on the order size, I would like to take pre-orders. Please send me a PM if you are interested in one (or a set of 3). They will be for $10 each and shipping will be $2-3 (with combined shipping for a set). The proceeds for this coin go to a non-profit group who promote and help with the restoration of the historic buildings (please see posts above for more information). Thanks for all who have made positive and helpful comments.

A recent Ebay pick-up.

yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, but today is a gift. That is why it is called the "present." from a favorite movie of my boys

We will be in the Calgary / Cochrane area for a vacation / wedding and would like to do some caching. Specificly my kids would like to start their TB on a race home from Calgary / Cochrane. Any suggestions on a good cache to visit to start the race?

Two of my earliest cache were at historic cemeteries (both found on the same day). One was located out side the fence. I think this cemetery is still in use. The other one was not in use anymore and had a shelter and a large information display. We had to read the display and get clue to figure out the coordinates that took us back out side the fence to the parking area where the cache was located. It was a very informative cache.

My first FTF was a night cache.

The scouter in me would love this coin. Add me to the list to trade for it.

Some photos of wildlife while caching in Wyoming. The deer where wondering around the grounds of the Historic WY state penitentiary and the antelope was watching me the whole time while getting a cache along I-80 (also at a historic site).

Received the samples of the Roundhouse Coin I am working on. Didn't actually get them in the mailbox, I went and picked them up. (sorry thay are not the best photos)

I have permission from the city to hide a cache at a local historic site. The site is visited regularly by tourists and I thought this would be a great way to introduce cachers to the history of the area. They also have some promotional swag (pins, stress balls, postcards, ect..) that they have offered to donate to the cache.

Received the photos of the coin samples today. Looking forward to actually getting the samples here!

This helps alittle. I am fairly handy with photoshop, but the main question is I can turn a photo into a GIF in the size required, but all the icons are "cartoony" and not photo quality. Do I have to make it cartoon like or does someone convert the photo for you. It can be difficult to make a photo look good at 32x32 pixels. I think you would first need to transform it into a pencil sketch, ink sketch, or oil paining. This is to simplify the lines and increase the contrast so that it will still make sense at the greatly reduced resolution. Actually, I did make an icon based on a photograph by converting it into an oil painting. It worked out very well. Here is what the icon looked like This icon was made for the Mr. Gray coin based on a photograph of what I thought was the coin. Here is what the photograph looked like Good idea on converting the photo. Will try it out. That is the kind of advice I was hoping for (though I should have thought of that myself, duh!).

I have not made a lot of icons, but here is my limited advice and knowledge. The icons will be 32x32 pixels and 16x16 pixels so keep the design on the simpler side. By the way, the icon that is displayed by Groundspeak is determined by the particular page opened, so at some parts of the website the large icon will appear and at other parts of the website, the small icon will appear. To make the icon, open your favorite graphics software and go to the menu where you can set either the "page size" or "canvas size". You will be able to set the size in various units such as "inches", "centimeters", or "pixels", choose pixels. For the large icon, choose 32x32 and for the small icon choose 16x16. You will then create your design keeping in mind that it will be very small. To see what it will actually look like, set the zoom to 100%. You should then see what the icons will look like when opened in Groundspeak's website. It may be simpler to first set the canvas or page size to 500x500 pixels. When the design is complete, then “resize the image” to 32x32 pixels. My personal opinion is that simple and bold is the way to go for icons. Is this the kind of information you were looking for? This helps alittle. I am fairly handy with photoshop, but the main question is I can turn a photo into a GIF in the size required, but all the icons are "cartoony" and not photo quality. Do I have to make it cartoon like or does someone convert the photo for you.

It looks like custom icon it is. For those who have made them any advice? I was looking for more information or tips on creating them but I have not found much in the way of help.

I feel like a kid at christmas time.. just payed the deposit for samples of our first coin. Now just waiting..................

When will spring finaly get here to the northwest? Woke up this morning to snow! Not very good caching weather.