Belfrypotters

Hi Butterfly_lady, this is in response to your roll call - no, we haven't received either coin yet, but there's still time before Christmas, and if not by Christmas, then it will be a nice New Year's present (or Valentine's Day, or...). Isn't that why it's called the "Last Minute" mission? .

Oh, no! Anyone who not only loses a cherished family heirloom like that, but lives through an earthquake too, deserves to win a cointest, even without a photo. I don't have a photo, so this is just a story, not a cointest entry, but my favorite Christmas ornament is my poor bent and tattered tree-top star: When I was young my parents always had an artificial tree - it had shiny silver needles, shiny coloured balls, and a spotlight that changed from yellow to red to green to purple (yes, purple). Very chic, no doubt, but I didn't care for it at all. I always wanted a REAL tree. One that smelled like sap and shed needles all over the carpet. So when I moved into my first apartment I was determined to have the Christmas tree of my dreams. It was small, because that was all I could afford, but it had a string of lights, some hand-made Christmas ornaments, and a star on top - a really cheap star, made of gold tinsel and wire, but since I couldn't afford to buy an angel it would have to do. For more than twenty-five Christmases we put that star on top of the tree, and every year I would think about some day replacing it with a beautiful angel. About five years ago I decided it was time to finally buy my angel, and I spent a considerable amount of time trying to choose. There were so many beautiful angels that I couldn't decide, so once again out came the poor old star. But for some reason it didn't annoy me any more, and I realized that if I did buy an angel, the star would never be on top of the tree again. Somehow that just didn't seem right when it had seen so many Christmases with our family. Ironically, we haven't put up a Christmas tree the last few years, so that's why I can't post a picture.

Every year Mr BP and I go for a walk to admire all the neighbours' Christmas lights. Since we live in the country this involves walking several miles, with several long dark stretches where we can barely see the road in front of us. We take a flashlight but only turn it on when we need to warn the occasional car that we're on the road. The road is often icy, and the weather is sometimes cold or windy, but by the time we hustle our frozen butts back home for a cup of hot chocolate in front of the fireplace we're always relaxed and in a good mood.

hehehehehehehee!!! Sorry, my second grade humor is breaking through... You're not the only one who snickered at that comment Back on topic, our Sundial Geocoin even came with a little hazardous warning label. Not for lead, but because of the hinged style that stands up, creating not only a functional sundial, but also the possiblilty of impalement. I can almost hear my mother saying "careful before you poke someone's eye out with that thing". We left the little warning sticker on the coin when we released it, for legal reasons, and for the humour.

Oh sure, rub it in! It's finally warmed up to -29C here . We're staying inside and baking gingersnap cookies today. No sign of any incoming coins here yet, but since the one I sent to NZ arrived a week ahead of the one I sent to OR, I'm not worried yet. Just eager!

Yes, new cachers often never go out a second time, and they forget they have a TB languishing in the bottom of their backpack. John's captors haven't logged into GC.com for months, so it's not looking good for him. With luck they'll find him some day and set him free, but in the meantime I'd suggest getting some more TBs out there - the more you have, the less attached you are to individual bugs. It lessens the heartbreak .

I'd like to second Eartha's nomination, even if she won't accept any gifts, because of her patience and her caring responses to all sorts of questions and issues. She's my hero . For a more local nominee, I'd recommend Kbrunog. He's too busy putting out caches to spend time in the forums, and I don't think he's a huge coin collector, but he does so much for caching in our area. He owns almost a hundred caches, and they are all creative works. Lots of puzzles! But even his evil puzzles are do-able, because he'll gladly provide a hint if you need one. Every one of his caches either takes you somewhere interesting or teaches you something you didn't know, each container is top-notch, and his FTF prizes are very generous (if he won a coin he'd probably leave it for FTF in his next cache). One cache has an expensive coin in it; a permanent cache resident for everyone to discover. Every cache is also well maintained, and quickly fixed or disabled if there are problems. When he finally finds time to go caching he also takes the time to write a really entertaining and complimentary log. He would never just sign TNLN and move on to the next one. And he's not a FTF hog - he'd rather leave the thrill of being first for others. We have a whole bunch of very giving cachers in our area, so it's really hard to choose any one over the others, but I think Kbrunog is a very well-rounded geocacher and deserves recognition.

I mailed both my coins today. Canada Post wasn't fooled into thinking they were just cards, in spite of the cardboard I used to try to disguise the coins. She made me pay the package rate, but it was still very reasonable. As long as they hold off on their planned strike, all should be good. This was fun, and the anticipation and waiting is even more fun! Merry Christmas and thanks for organizing this Butterfly_lady .

email sent. This is our first mission, too, so we're looking forward to it. Thanks Butterfly_lady for all the time you're putting into this.

Love 'em or hate 'em? It depends on whether we find it or not . Whenever we find one we complain that it wasn't an ammo can, but still we're pretty pleased with ourselves for finding it. Three of our most memorable finds have been micro caches in the mountains, with poor signal, lots of trees, rocks and cliffs everywhere, and devious hides. But we knew they were micros before we headed up the trail, and finding those really tough ones makes it even sweeter. With that in mind, we recently purchased a few bison tubes, even though we swore we'd never, ever hide a micro in the forest.

I'm not into trading, so no trading whoopses yet, but it's reassuring to know that when I finally do mess up, someone else will already have made the same mistake. But I once paid too much for a coin on Ebay, after getting caught up in a bidding war, and then found out the coin was still for sale from the manufacturer, for quite a bit less. And this past weekend I completely forgot I was bidding on a coin I really wanted, and the coin went for $10 to the second bidder. It should have gone much higher, and it should have gone to me! But my biggest whoops was when we first found an unactivated coin in a cache. I assumed coins were gifts, not trade items, so we didn't trade up or even, just took the coin. I've since seen that coin on Ebay for over $20. I still feel guilty.

There are so many bad news stories about cachers being careless with TBs that I thought I'd share a good news story, where a couple of cachers went beyond the call of duty for a TB. Last summer one of our TBs (Uglimutt) fell apart, and the tag became separated from the traveller, a small stuffed dog. A kind cacher in Saskatchewan (Scratch1) picked up the tag, and after asking our permission replaced the missing dog with a cute new one. The resurrected Uglimutt toured around Saskatchewan for the summer. In the meantime, the missing stuffed dog also moved around, without a TB tag but with a note attached saying he was trying to go home to Alberta. Another kind cacher (Olemaz) picked him up while doing cache maintenance this week, recognized him, contacted us for instructions, retrieved the new Uglimutt from the cache he was in, and mailed everything back to us so we can decide which dog gets the old tag and which gets a new tag. Thanks to Scratch1 and Olemaz, and to whoever attached the note to our poor old Uglimutt. Saskatchewan cachers are great!

That would be MrBP, and he talks with his hands, too, so his eyes aren't on the road and his hands aren't on the wheel. Needless to say I try not to start any conversations in the car . I find it interesting that Ontario is progressive enough to ban driving with handheld electronic devices, while Alberta won't consider it. We've been ranked the worst drivers in Canada here in Edmonton, and I won't argue that. Recently during a week of driving in Toronto, usually lost (in spite of three maps on my lap and a GPS in my hand) no one honked at us and everyone let us change lanes when we needed to. We'd been dreading driving in the "big city" but it turned out to be much more relaxing than driving here at home, where it seems like everyone drives a pickup, has a cell phone stuck to their ear, and has an attitude about owning the road.

In northern Alberta the leaves fell over a month ago, but we just came back from Toronto and enjoyed the start of the fall colours there.

Can't let the dogs have all the glory! Here's a picture of Twitch, our tabby cat. Mostly he models TBs (shown here with "I Love Cats" around his neck) but he came caching with us once when we stopped for a break while on vacation. He followed me all the way to the cache (on a leash, with Mr BP on the other end), even stepping gingerly through the swampy area. Unfortunately he wasn't as eager to return to the truck and had to be carried, protesting all the way. Poor Mr BP was covered in muddy paw prints by the time we got back to the parking lot. Now if only we could train him to sniff out Lock and Locks! OldA'sFan, I empathize. Somehow that learning curve seems steeper for those of us who aren't so young any more. Your photo needs to be saved to a photosharing site first - Flickr, Photobucket or similar. Yes, something else to learn. Then copy the IMG code, go to your forum post, click on the little green tree above the text box. A little box will appear. Paste the url address into the little box and click OK. I end usually end up with a double set of IMG tags, so I delete the extra pair. I have no idea why that happens.

We recently used cammo hockey tape, too, and found it easier to apply and less shiny than duct tape. But it left us with two questions: 1. Will it become black and mouldy after a few years? 2. Why would you cammo your hockey stick?

I agree that a little time to get home and log TBs properly would be appreciated. I once sent an email to a cacher who had grabbed two TBs from us less than an hour after we left them in a cache. I suggested (very politely) that in future he might wait so people have a chance to log, and he replied that he thought it was rude to not log as soon as possible. So there are two sides to every story I guess, but at least he sent me the TB number so I could grab it back, log it in properly, and then he logged it out again. But in the big picture it doesn't usually make a huge difference to the TB's mileage, so I try not to worry about it. Dropping a TB in a remote area, no matter if it's in the right direction or not, is just thoughtless. A cacher near us dropped two TBs in a remote mountain cache almost two years ago. We tried to rescue them this summer, but after hiking 12km to the end of the trail we were too tired to climb the cliff to the top of the waterfall to get the TBs. It was a tough decision to leave the TBs behind and head back the way we came, but we weren't willing to risk a fall down the cliffside just for a smiley and a couple of TBs. So there they sit, in a cache that has seen only a couple of visitors. It still amazes me that anyone would leave TBs there, but we've seen it happen several times.

I'm not familiar with that coin, but here is a link to another thread that discusses it. Some of those posters probably still have their coins and can tell you where to activate it: LIGO You also might try contacting the Ebay seller. Usually they are really helpful.

I've only ever seen one FTF certificate, but it was in a cache placed by a member of the Manitoba Geocachers Association (sorry if I have the name wrong), so they may be quite common in Manitoba, and it wouldn't be unreasonable for a new cacher to wonder where the certificate was if they didn't find one. Like most of us, they probably don't have a lot of FTFs, and didn't know what to expect. I'm a bit embarassed by some of the responses to what was a good question. Usually geocachers and forum posters are polite and helpful, but occasionally Off Topic behaviour migrates over to the serious side of the forums. So welcome to the forums to both the OP and the FTF, and please don't give up on us. I've learned a LOT about geocaching from the forums, and been entertained too, and I think you'll find most people very helpful if you have further questions. And good for you for sticking up for yourselves and blasting those that needed it!

The trouble with being puzzle challenged is that everyone else seems to get it right away. But don't feel bad, I haven't a clue, either (yet). At least you can just shrug and move on; I live in Kbrunog's area, and his puzzles tantalize and torment constantly. Every time I finally figure one out, three more appear . Sigh.

Can I do that retroactively, on an old cache? And if so, how? Do I just edit the page to add additional waypoints? What exactly is a child waypoint?

You might also try calling a few of the schools in the area, and ask if any of the classes have a travel bug project. Also, if you check the TB pages of some of the other bugs maybe they will tell you what group released them, and then you can contact the group. If you don't have any of the other bugs yourself, go to the cache page and look under See the History, it will show all the TBs that have been in the cache. Hopefully there aren't thousands! Good luck.

Guilty as charged, and unrepentent . If you're looking for a hint I assume it's because you can't find the cache, so I'll tell you exactly where it is. Most of our caches require a hike, and it's frustrating to hike 10km and then not find the cache because you can't get a good signal in the trees. The most frustrating hint we've seen was on a puzzle cache that was sort of a letterbox hybrid or offset cache - point this direction, pace this far, etc. All the directions were hidden in the hint, so it wasn't useless, it was necessary. The cache description made no mention of needing to use the hint to find the cache, with the only clue being that little blue question mark, indicating an unknown cache type. There were many dnfs on that one, from people who hadn't read the hint and then beat the forest to death looking for a cache that was a hundred meters away. If they'd just included a "cache is not at the posted coordinates" statement then all would have been good, because people would have realized it really was a puzzle that they had to solve by finding the instructions in the hint. Now that I have a pda useless hints aren't as frustrating, but when we were decoding on paper, in the rain or mosquitos, the long chatty hints were the worst.

Just a suggestion - you might want to go out to find a geocache or two before you take your grandkids with you. Sometimes finding the cache is even harder than getting the waypoints on the GPS, and you don't want the kids to think you don't know what you're doing . Then you can start out by taking them to the caches you've already found, so they'll have a guaranteed find.

It usually depends on how far we've walked to get there. If it's a short hike we'll sometimes search as long as half an hour, but usually just ten minutes or so and figure on coming back, when, as Cyn says, it will be right where you expected it to be but just didn't see it. But if we've hiked half a day to get there, it really hurts to go home without that smiley, so we'll spend a lot more time. The difficulty level doesn't seem to affect our hunt time.