@#$%

[crtrue]

Two months ago I went to a cache completely destroyed by mowing and clearing and helped clean up the site. Today I wake up to find the following image on Bridging the Gap (GC11318), my first placed cache:

 

 

Not again. Sheesh. That was my last can, to boot.

 

On another note, I never realized anything could slice through an ammo can like that. Wow.

 

I've posted another topic on this before, when I cleaned up the first one, but I just had to say, there is something annoyingly sad about having your cache run over without anyone realizing it's even there...

Edited May 18, 2007 by crtrue

[vtmtnman]

Ouch...looks like a bush hog did that.

[+worldtraveler]

No sympathy here. Hidden with adequate permission? Ya think maybe you shouldn't hide them where it is possible to drive a bush hog?

I'd guess the owner/operator of that mowing machine was equally mad that someone intentionally hid a metal can in a place he had to mow. It may have damaged his equipment and/or injured someone.

[crtrue]

No sympathy here. Hidden with adequate permission? Ya think maybe you shouldn't hide them where it is possible to drive a bush hog?

I'd guess the owner/operator of that mowing machine was equally mad that someone intentionally hid a metal can in a place he had to mow. It may have damaged his equipment and/or injured someone.

 

It's so easy to take the higher ground on this, isn't it? This is a spot that hasn't been mowed in years, on a slope, at an rarely used boat dock. Boat docks have some form of blanket permission along the Grand Strand due to the work of wildfireman, so it wasn't necessary to seek full-on permission. On another note, anyone can be assigned to mow an area and not know there is a large metal object there -- ammo cans aren't the only metal objects you find in long grass.

 

As I said before, this happened before when an entire lot was cleared, and despite having permission, the owner never found until we went to the site and cleaned up the log book.

 

I promise you, adequate permission will not protect your cache in any way, shape, or form from being run over by a bush hog. It just means the owner doesn't care enough to stop you.

[+eagletrek]

Two months ago I went to a cache completely destroyed by mowing and clearing and helped clean up the site. Today I wake up to find the following image on Bridging the Gap (GC11318), my first placed cache:

 

 

Not again. Sheesh. That was my last can, to boot.

 

On another note, I never realized anything could slice through an ammo can like that. Wow.

 

I've posted another topic on this before, when I cleaned up the first one, but I just had to say, there is something annoyingly sad about having your cache run over without anyone realizing it's even there...

 

No sympathy from me. On the bright side, we at least know that you hid it well!!!!!!!

 

Could this be a plea for an "ammo can" handout?????

[vtmtnman]

 

Wow,I'm quite surprized at these responses.

[+ZSandmann]

I am too. I mean it does get ugly in here sometimes, but usually I can at least partially rationalize the view of the opposing side. But in this case it's just plain old vile attitude. Give him a break, he wasn't begging for an ammo can, just showing what happened. No wonder I don't share personal stories on here anymore.

[Clan Riffster]

Ouch! Sorry about the can, Brother. If it's any consolation, the operator most definitely knew (s)he hit it.

[+Renegade Knight]

No sympathy here. Hidden with adequate permission? Ya think maybe you shouldn't hide them where it is possible to drive a bush hog?

I'd guess the owner/operator of that mowing machine was equally mad that someone intentionally hid a metal can in a place he had to mow. It may have damaged his equipment and/or injured someone.

 

It's so easy to take the higher ground on this, isn't it? This is a spot that hasn't been mowed in years, on a slope, at an rarely used boat dock. ...

 

However: Now that you have better infomation on that site, you now know that hide isn't going to work and needs redone. That said, I've seen less damage from a regular bulldozer smashing a can flat than that machine. Ouch!

[+Snoogans]

Ouch...looks like a bush hog did that.

 

 

I used operate one of those back in the day. I'd hafta say I agree and from the clean looking slice it has a brand spanky new blade on it too.

[+TotemLake]

Ouch...looks like a bush hog did that.

 

 

I used operate one of those back in the day. I'd hafta say I agree and from the clean looking slice it has had a brand spanky new blade on it too.

 

Fixed.

Edited May 18, 2007 by TotemLake

[vtmtnman]

Ouch...looks like a bush hog did that.

 

 

I used operate one of those back in the day. I'd hafta say I agree and from the clean looking slice it has had a brand spanky new blade on it too.

 

Fixed.

[+Snoogans]

No sympathy here. Hidden with adequate permission? Ya think maybe you shouldn't hide them where it is possible to drive a bush hog?

I'd guess the owner/operator of that mowing machine was equally mad that someone intentionally hid a metal can in a place he had to mow. It may have damaged his equipment and/or injured someone.

 

 

A paltry little ammo can couldn't do much to a brush hog. They generally have a sharpened steel blade that is an inch or more thick. They are designed to handle much worse. They are also fairly safe having deep safety skirts. They don't send out as much shrapnel as my my old lawnmower. There was very little chance of injury to the operator and anyone else beyond about 3 to 5 feet on either side.

Edited May 18, 2007 by Snoogans

[+genegene]

My buddy once ran over a gas grill porpane tank that was in high grass. nothor he or the owner of the property knew it was there. he told me that it made one hect of a explosion from under the brush hog to boot. nothing hapend to the hog just needed to sharpen the blades after that. luckly no one got hurt on that one

[+ZSandmann]

My buddy once ran over a gas grill porpane tank that was in high grass. nothor he or the owner of the property knew it was there. he told me that it made one hect of a explosion from under the brush hog to boot. nothing hapend to the hog just needed to sharpen the blades after that. luckly no one got hurt on that one

 

Holy crow! Kinda like driving a Minesweeper eh?

[+worldtraveler]

...it does get ugly in here sometimes, but usually I can at least partially rationalize the view of the opposing side. But in this case it's just plain old vile attitude. Give him a break...

I assure there was no vileness in my attitude. There was, perhaps, a hint of "Well, duh!"

 

On Feb 15, the OP found a mowed-over cache named (of all things) "You Could Learn A Thing or Two!" He even went on to post this topic in which he wrote "A sad day for brush-covered caches everywhere." He evidently didn't "learn a thing or two", however, because just 8 days later he hid this cache in a similar fashion. Now that it has taken just 3 months to meet the same fate, he posts this topic entitled "@#$%, Not again". Neither his original post nor his response to my reply contained any acknowledgement of his own responsibility for the fate of his cache or any indication he has learned anything from the two experiences - just defensiveness and rationalizing.

 

I bear no vileness or ill will of any kind toward the OP. I just have no sympathy for his circumstance.

[+Good 'OL Eagle]

About 5 years ago a crew was mowing along instate 55 in Jackson MS.

One of the mowers hit a cement pipe and the blade broke off.

It traveled about 150 ft, went through the door of a minivan, and cut the driver in half

The van crashed into a retaining wall, hurting the two kids in car seats and killing the

grandmother riding in the back. I speed up ever time I see a them mowing now

[+Ble68]

such nasty responses!! I do have sympathy for you unlike others!!!

[+Cpt.Blackbeard]

No sympathy here. Hidden with adequate permission? Ya think maybe you shouldn't hide them where it is possible to drive a bush hog?

I'd guess the owner/operator of that mowing machine was equally mad that someone intentionally hid a metal can in a place he had to mow. It may have damaged his equipment and/or injured someone.

 

 

A paltry little ammo can couldn't do much to a brush hog. They generally have a sharpened steel blade that is an inch or more thick. They are designed to handle much worse. They are also fairly safe having deep safety skirts. They don't send out as much shrapnel as my my old lawnmower. There was very little chance of injury to the operator and anyone else beyond about 3 to 5 feet on either side.

 

Quite right, I doubt the operator gave it a second thought, just one more object struck. I once saw Dad hit a rock about three feet long and a foot tall with a bush hog, slpit the rock cleanly in half lengthways and didn't hurt the mower at all.

[+Confucius' Cat]

Bummer for your loss and neat picture.

 

But i will stand with those who criticize the hide. UNLESS...

 

Unless the place where you hid it was tree covered or in some other way "shielded" from potential mowing, I think it was a little irrational to just hide the can in tall grass. Grass- mower. Is there a connection here?

 

Just because an area hasn't been mowed in a long time, doesn't mean it's not gonna be.

 

I don't see dropping an ammo can in tall grass as being a particularly good hide.

 

it DOES make sense if the land manager CHANGED the nature of the land use and this resulted in the cache location being mowed for the first time. Or if the last finder or muggles left the box out in the grass when it was supposed to be in the hollow tree.

 

I'm sure there has to be more to the story.

[+webscouter.]

See, you should have used a film canister.

[crtrue]

Bummer for your loss and neat picture.

 

But i will stand with those who criticize the hide. UNLESS...

 

Unless the place where you hid it was tree covered or in some other way "shielded" from potential mowing, I think it was a little irrational to just hide the can in tall grass. Grass- mower. Is there a connection here?

 

Just because an area hasn't been mowed in a long time, doesn't mean it's not gonna be.

 

I don't see dropping an ammo can in tall grass as being a particularly good hide.

 

it DOES make sense if the land manager CHANGED the nature of the land use and this resulted in the cache location being mowed for the first time. Or if the last finder or muggles left the box out in the grass when it was supposed to be in the hollow tree.

 

I'm sure there has to be more to the story.

 

Here's the funny thing. I checked out the site today and it wasn't mowed, it was ground to dirt...

 

The container was hidden next to a small tree, which had everything removed from it, but was oddly spared.

 

As for the hide, it wasn't originally an ammo can, but evolved into one because it was a popular in-town spot that was generally secluded. It wasn't like I threw it in a field -- this was in a part full of trees and kudzu and generally had no reason to be mowed, as there is no reason to really go up there.

 

Here's the thing I don't get. I don't know what exactly they were mowing. They mowed about half of the side of a slope and half of another, but kept huge parts of each and ground other parts to the ground. Perhaps they're creating some sort of installation or enlarging the dock, but I don't know.

 

PS: For those who are saying it was somehow my fault for not assuming that my cache was going to get run over by a mower -- what is your problem? I'm not asking for sympathy, just posting a general "weird / annoying". Are you suggesting I stop hiding caches in spots that have the possibility of having a future alternative use, no matter how unlikely? I just don't understand the hate, I guess.

[+Confucius' Cat]

So my guess would be that someone (muggle) found it and tossed it into the grass and it went downhill from there.

[+Planet]

Here's why. I googled because you mentioned kudzu, and that is an invasive plant. I've seen it covering acres of trees down south years ago, I don't know if it's still that bad, they've been trying to get it under control.

[+Renegade Knight]

So my guess would be that someone (muggle) found it and tossed it into the grass and it went downhill from there.

It's always possible a cacher did it. I've never owned a cache that didn't migrate.

[vtmtnman]

I just don't understand the hate, I guess.

 

So then you've been here LESS than 5 seconds?

[+Knight2000]

I am too. I mean it does get ugly in here sometimes, but usually I can at least partially rationalize the view of the opposing side. But in this case it's just plain old vile attitude. Give him a break, he wasn't begging for an ammo can, just showing what happened. No wonder I don't share personal stories on here anymore.

Amen to that!

[+Knight2000]

I just don't understand the hate, I guess.

 

So then you've been here LESS than 5 seconds?

I hate to say this but, Double Amen to that.

[+Moose Mob]

Does this thread have a direction?

 

I can understand the OP, but many the responses have been a bit off kilter.

 

Lets get this thread in some reasonable direction, or don't post.

 

Thanks

[+VeryLost]

No sympathy here. Hidden with adequate permission? Ya think maybe you shouldn't hide them where it is possible to drive a bush hog? I'd guess the owner/operator of that mowing machine was equally mad that someone intentionally hid a metal can in a place he had to mow. It may have damaged his equipment and/or injured someone.

It's so easy to take the higher ground on this, isn't it?

 

I would think that if he was interested in taking the high ground, he wouldn't have started by attacking you. He sort of tossed any claim to the high ground by doing so

[crtrue]

Does this thread have a direction?

 

I can understand the OP, but many the responses have been a bit off kilter.

 

Lets get this thread in some reasonable direction, or don't post.

 

Thanks

 

Apparently it has become "Is the cache owner responsible when circumstances outside of his control render his ammo can into mush"

 

But seriously, I was hoping to find shared experiences, or at least people who have gone through the joy of having a container literally destroyed, either by another person or something else.

[+The Leprechauns]

I lost a large rubbermaid container when the tree it was in was struck by lightning and burned to the ground.

I lost a smaller rubbermaid when a tree fell over in a storm, crushing the rocks under which the cache was hidden.

One of my best hides, an ammo box hidden UP inside a hollow tree, was ruined when that hollow tree tipped over.

 

Based on the foregoing, and heeding the sage advice of other posters to this thread, the inexorable conclusion is: DO NOT HIDE CACHES IN OR NEAR TREES.

[vtmtnman]

I lost a large rubbermaid container when the tree it was in was struck by lightning and burned to the ground.

I lost a smaller rubbermaid when a tree fell over in a storm, crushing the rocks under which the cache was hidden.

One of my best hides, an ammo box hidden UP inside a hollow tree, was ruined when that hollow tree tipped over.

 

Based on the foregoing, and heeding the sage advice of other posters to this thread, the inexorable conclusion is: DO NOT HIDE CACHES IN OR NEAR TREES.

Or hungry bush hogs.

[+Miragee]

I happened onto the remains of the Tupperware container I had found a year earlier in a little open space park. That cache location had been demolished by a bulldozer when they decided to clear some downed trees and brush . . .

[+Trucker Lee]

I promise you, adequate permission will not protect your cache in any way, shape, or form from being run over by a bush hog. It just means the owner doesn't care enough to stop you.

 

Permission won't prevent your caches from being run-over or bulldozed, or in the rare event, exploded. It in no way implies that the owner will remember the cache is there when they contract to have machinery used on the property, or sell the property. For the equipment operator to know of the cache, the person contracting them MUST tell them of it, or they accidently notice it while doing a walk-thru before starting work. I would say that most property owners forget they gave permission for a cache unless they see persons hunting it to remind them of the presence.

 

As noted above, objects hit by a brush-hog type mower may or may not be a hazard, it depends on the whimsy of the instance, like dropping a glass pop bottle. It should be noted that any rotary blade can throw objects, and being in front of the discharge is not a good idea, EVER.

Edited May 19, 2007 by Trucker Lee

[crtrue]

An aside: I recovered the cache container after a 10pm meeting at Starbucks last night. My only comment -- wow! The photo is a bit grainy, but seeing this up close has told me too things:

 

1) The blade was at least half an inch to an inch thick and the container collapsed into four pieces due to a hinge failure

2) The container itself, despite looking imploded, actually was not cut through. Nor with the vinyl sticker. This was just the container being smacked really hard, not sliced. It still has a big, nice, obvious dent in it, but theoretically I could put it back together, with the right tool

 

If anyone is going to Geowoodstock, I'll probably bring it in the back of the car and show it off when I get bored...heh

[crtrue]

I lost a large rubbermaid container when the tree it was in was struck by lightning and burned to the ground.

I lost a smaller rubbermaid when a tree fell over in a storm, crushing the rocks under which the cache was hidden.

One of my best hides, an ammo box hidden UP inside a hollow tree, was ruined when that hollow tree tipped over.

 

Based on the foregoing, and heeding the sage advice of other posters to this thread, the inexorable conclusion is: DO NOT HIDE CACHES IN OR NEAR TREES.

 

Extend this to LPCs and I you will be my best friend.

[+Confucius' Cat]

One of mine got painted when the parks maintenance people painted their park benches.

 

made the camo even better than it obviously WAS.

[vtmtnman]

One of mine got painted when the parks maintenance people painted their park benches.

 

made the camo even better than it obviously WAS.

NICE...I'm sure the paint makes it another star on the diff?

[crtrue]

One of mine got painted when the parks maintenance people painted their park benches.

 

made the camo even better than it obviously WAS.

 

I imagine it also made opening the lid quite a bit more challenging for the first person to run across it

[+Night Stalker]

I remember Renegade Knight and I rescuing a cache from a tractor after a park decided to extend it bounderies a few year back. It sounds to me like the OP had hidden this cache as well as anyone could expect and circumstances got the best of it. He could probably hide it back in its original location and not have it bothered for quite some time to come.

 

Sounds like it was a whole lot better cache than many we se these days.

[+geomann1]

I lost a large rubbermaid container when the tree it was in was struck by lightning and burned to the ground.

I lost a smaller rubbermaid when a tree fell over in a storm, crushing the rocks under which the cache was hidden.

One of my best hides, an ammo box hidden UP inside a hollow tree, was ruined when that hollow tree tipped over.

 

Based on the foregoing, and heeding the sage advice of other posters to this thread, the inexorable conclusion is: DO NOT HIDE CACHES IN OR NEAR TREES.

 

Extend this to LPCs and I you will be my best friend.

 

Caches, just like cachers, will not last forever. My feeling about it is that all caches will eventually get destroyed, muggled, worn out, etc., and can be replaced. I'm more concerned about coming up with cache ideas that will be fun for finders than longevity.

[+Exocet]

Caches, just like cachers, will not last forever. My feeling about it is that all caches will eventually get destroyed, muggled, worn out, etc., and can be replaced. I'm more concerned about coming up with cache ideas that will be fun for finders than longevity.

 

Absolutely right. My oldest cache has been moved something like four times over the years in response to vegetation loss, muggling and so on.

 

No cache will stay where it's put forever much less more than about 5 minutes ~ 5 years. Nothing stays where it's put forever due to completely natural causes like floods, fires, wind, earthquakes and so on... and that doesn't enough touch on other cachers moving it a bit, logging, construction, etc. Just patch it up, maybe move it slightly to a better spot and call it good.

 

I think the occasional check-up on your own caches is probably a very good thing and probably something that many people don't do that often (myself often included!).

[+mrring]

We just replaced a cache today that was found by a muggle, at least we are assuming it was a muggle. The container was still in the spot we hid it but the swag and log was gone. The muggle did leave us one present, an empty beer can. (Wish it had been full !!)

 

Anyway, sorry about the container, don't give up hope and try it again.

[+Knight2000]

We just replaced a cache today that was found by a muggle, at least we are assuming it was a muggle. The container was still in the spot we hid it but the swag and log was gone. The muggle did leave us one present, an empty beer can. (Wish it had been full !!)

 

Anyway, sorry about the container, don't give up hope and try it again.

Maybe it was a drunk cacher?

[+Confucius' Cat]

We just replaced a cache today that was found by a muggle, at least we are assuming it was a muggle. The container was still in the spot we hid it but the swag and log was gone. The muggle did leave us one present, an empty beer can. (Wish it had been full !!)

 

Anyway, sorry about the container, don't give up hope and try it again.

Maybe it was a drunk cacher?

had to make room for the can, wouldn't want to just toss it on the ground, would we?

[nonaeroterraqueous]

I had found a spot that I figured was safe. The nearby palm tree looked to be about 3-5 years old, never groomed, surrounded by a perrenial that had obviously been there awhile. I placed it deep in the perennial, thinking that, at worst, the shrub would get trimmed back but the cache would still be safe. A couple of months later and the tree was groomed and the shrubs were completely removed. The gardener was kind enough to cast the remains off to one side rather than throw it away. That's just the way it is. A plant could be thriving untouched for years in that spot, but the moment you toss a cache in it you've doomed it to some weird twist of fate: gardeners descend upon it and kill it in the dark of night with their cruel evil blades.