chrisandjanet

Oops. Sorry.

A wooden rubber band gun and a bag of ammo. Expired coupon for an out of town fast food joint

In pretty much every thread about SWAG degredation, someone trots out the line "one man's trash is another man's treasure." Lets prove that here by giving some examples. I propose that posters name one SWAG item they think is trash (for example, a rock). The next poster suggests under what circumstances that "trash" would be considered "cool SWAG" to them (for example, a piece of volcanic glass on a card indicating where it's from and how it was formed). Then, post an item they consider "trash", and the game goes on This is all very subjective, I know. But it might give some folks some good ideas for sig items or something. Please, no angsty OT posts about how you don't like to trade anyway so the SWAG doesn't matter, or how rocks don't belong in a cache anyway because some two year old caching without his parents could choke on it or such. First item: Speng bullet casing found on the trail

Remove SWAG from the game and I imagine a lot of folks with kids (including us) will likely stop caching.

I used to do quite a bit of property research in a former life, so I know a little bit about the language used in property descriptions. Perhaps someone with surveying knowledge could correct me if I'm wrong. The OP says there is an "easement" for a county road across the property. Quite often, easements are written for specific activities. Public right-of-way does not always apply. For example, if the easement is written something like "a 10 foot wide easement for the purposes of accessing the river", then stepping one foot off the road to have a smoke or something would equate to tresspassing. I agree, though - it can be difficult to determine such things without a pretty good knowledge of how things work in your area. Not an excuse, but perhaps a reason why more people don't research such issues.

Carabiners seem popular - the good ones with a screw-type lock are a few bucks and might make a better "prize" than the 1$ ones at the checkout lanes.

While I certainly applaud the sentiment of replying with a Thank You, I do see another side to the issue. I work for a large corporation where it's not uncommon to get 50 to 100 emails per day, of which about 1% (gut feeling, not hard data) actually require some sort of response from me. It is part of the culture (and greatly appreciated by some) NOT to reply with a Thank You email for little things, to avoid to adding to the recipient's inbox clutter. Just sayin'.

Moose Mob - no worries about being the bad guy - I agree with you wholeheartedly about the promotion of agendas. As a long time forum lurker, I see a lot of posts about "hide the kind of cache you like to find". The kind of cache I like to find takes me someplace I haven't been before, and educates me in some way, be it the local pet cemetery I didn't know existed or the cache across from the local hole-in-the-wall that, according to the CO, has a great pizza.

To be clear, I am absolutely NOT trying to get around any of the guidelines; I want to work within them 100%. I should have mentioned that I have contacted the local reviewer, originally because I was concerned that it would be perceived as an "agenda cache". He replied that it probably would not fall under that category, but would probably get hung up on the commercial aspect. I guess I am looking for ideas on how to phrase my proposed cache page properly, so that I cause the minimum ammount of drama and heartache when I pass it by the reviewer for their final OK. Thanks for the ideas so far!

I do a lot of work at a local community theater. It's a non-profit organization; actors, directors, techies, board of directors are all volunteers from the community. I'd like to place a cache there, because it's a historic place in the community and I think some people might like to know more about the opportunities offered. I understand I can't put any contact information, website, etc. on the cache page. No problem. What I'd like from the forum community are any ideas on how I could get information to people who might be interested, without breaking any of the "commercial" guidelines. (Hopefully something more creative than putting some brochures in the cache, since I hate finding soggy pieces of paper in caches myself.) Thanks for your help!

Kind of on-topic, seeing as it's a story about a Canada pin... Last year myself, the wife and our 3 year old went to visit wify's friend in Boston for the 4th of July. We cut through Canada from Michigan on the 3rd, about 10:00 in the evening. There were a lot of fireworks at the bridge, which our daughter really enjoyed as we were waiting in line. Neither the wife nor I could figure out why Canada would be celebrating the 4th of July. When we got to the border guard, she was kind of crabby. To brighten her evening (because hey, a conversation with me will brighten ANYBODY's evening!), I asked what the fireworks were for. She replied, Canada Day. Oh, well, Happy Canada Day I beamed at her. She actually cracked a smile and gave my daughter the exact pin pictured above. She still has it in her tray in the car and when she sees it she says she wants to go back to Canada and see the fireworks!

I never had the honor, unfortunately. I signed up for the National Guard at 17 with my parent's permission, scored a 98% on the ASVAB, and wound up being 11 pounds overweight at my physical. I'm still wondering if the recruiter couldn't have pulled some strings for that. Anyway, THANK YOU!

Hmm...Instead of finders being offended at the religious items in the cache, I wonder if the people whose religion they pertain to should be offended. I've picked up a few dreamcatchers and Buddahs from caches, and a lot of posters here hae said they've found prayer flags and the like. I always kind of thought something like, "cool, here's something that really means something to someone." Then somebody weighed in saying they'd like to find a crucifix in a cache, and I admit, I felt a tad bit uncomfortable at first (I got over it, btw) that a symbol I was raised to believe was sacred would be treated in such a way - chucked in a dirty, damp container with bits of trash. As for the tracts, well, since I already know what kind of life I lead, and I was raised to "know" what kind of l "should" lead (not always the same thing, sorry to say), I don't see the point, nor do I see the harm.

Michgan has something like that: www.mi-geocaching.org They call it the MiGO Rescue Mission. Tracks archived caches and people confirm they have been removed.

Christopher Comtois, Past Master of Joppa Lodge 315, Bay City, Michigan. I also have a Masonic geocoin floating around out there somewhere, and I've left a few dozen Masonic pennies in lots of caches.

. AMEN to that!!!

I didn't say I wanted to do it, I was just amused by the thought of a micro log indicating there was something else going on, and the owner's puzzlement at same. BTW, I wasn't bashing the creative micros, or even the LPM's (because it would be kind of hard to put an ammo can under a skirt). The specific cache that brought up the discussion was a key holder under a park sign, with a beautifully wooded nature trail about 50 feet away. Don't tell me we all haven't looked at SOME cache SOMEWHERE and thought to ourselves, "Now why didn't they use (cache option C) instead of (cache option A)?" Ammo can under a POS included.

So I and a caching buddy were shooting the breeze one day when the topic of lame micros came up (PREMPTIVE NOTE: I know that what one cacher considers lame might be anther's favorite, so let's not go down that road!). Specificaly we were talking about micros in an area where a full sized cache could have been placed. She came up with the idea of placing a full sized cache nearby, and planting the cords for it in the micro. Finders would'nt get an extra smilie, but they would get a chance at a larger cache. We kind of laughed about it and moved on, but the idea stuck in the back of my mind - imagine the micro owner's puzzlement when logs like "Took nothing, left (some large swag item)." Anybody heard of something like this?

It would certainly would be nice for the cache owner to let me know I was going to be looking in a cemetery. It would also be nice to know I was looking for a container stuffed down a rat hole on a river bank, or a film canister under the mulch in front of City Hall, or a magnetic sheet plastered on the side of a transformer, or a key box stuck to the side of a dumpster behind Wal-Mart. I've found 'em all, and I'll take the cemetery caches any day.

Hmmm....When you think about it in the larger scheme of things, we are really just a tiny planet around an insignificant star on the rim of an out of the way galaxy.....does that make us the cosmic equilivant of a lamp post micro?

Simply my two cents, but even if you locked it to an ammo can and hid it in the woods, it would still be listed as a micro in the woods, and some people prefer to just ignore those. Not saying it's a bad idea, just saying.

It is absolutely inappropriate!!! If it were found by an (unaccompanied) male juvenile it could easily be converted into a double-barreled slingshot, and we all know that weapons of any kind are forbidden!

Imagine the kinds of caches he'd hide - a 5/5 on the middle of a lake (notice I said ON, not IN). And how would he explain to his local reviewer that really, it was a bottle of WATER he'd left for the next cacher, because we all know wine would be against the rules... And of course, he'd never have to restock it with swag - no matter how many finders, there'd always be enough...

Past Master, Joppa 315 Bay City Michigan, and District Deputy Instructor. Trying to get a coupla other fellas into caching with their kids.

To judge from their preponderance in my area, Michigan style is under the skirt of a lamp post....