Should I note when I perform routine cache maintenance?

[+mesillywoohoo]

So we are currently visiting our caches every other week for general check and maintenance if needed. Should I be logging a note with something like: All is good here at the cache ?? I never have before but now I've seen it on a few caches I've looked at and wonder if that's something I should be doing too?

[+Mermaid.Man]

Every other week seems excessive. I like to check my caches every 6 months and I'll post an owner maintenance log when I do. 

[+Goldenwattle]

I do a maintenance log after I check the cache and log. If nothing else, it shows other people you are maintaining your caches. I say what condition I found it in. If this is relevant, I thank the person who made a mention the cache needed attention, whether in their log note, or as a NM. Normally though, I check my caches frequently enough I don't get NM logs. I say what maintenance was done. I also note if the two logs match, and if I found any missing signatures. (Those people I send messages to. I give them a chance to provide proof of visit, before I consider deleting those logs.)

How often I visit a cache can depend on the individual cache. If I happen to be passing I might check it, or if I get a suspicious log. I checked a cache this week, because I was suspicious of a log, but was pleasantly surprised to find my suspicions were wrong . Otherwise, at least every one to two years. Usually though, even then I find most caches are still good. It usually depends how well protected the cache is, the type of cache and how many visitors, how often the cache needs a visit.

[+barefootjeff]

My caches don't get many finds relative to my visits so I generally only post an OM log if I've actually fixed something, otherwise the cache page just fills up with my logs. I noticed this on a cache a few years back when, over an eighteen month period, the only logs were my OMs which all pretty much said the same thing, that I'd cleared away the leaf litter from around the first waypoint:

 

I'm mindful that anyone using PQs only gets to see the five most recent logs and I don't want them all to be OMs from me saying everything's fine.

[+cerberus1]

2 hours ago, mesillywoohoo said:

So we are currently visiting our caches every other week for general check and maintenance if needed.

Should I be logging a note with something like: All is good here at the cache ??

 

Are your containers so fragile that they need that much maintenance ?  If they're quality containers, you should be good for a while.  

If you're going to continue this maintenance plan, at 5-14 logs, your Owner Maintenance logs could end up more than finds.  

If you're okay with that, cool I guess...

I have two left that my yearly Temp Disable/Enable logs for a busy hunting season outnumber all finds (of maybe one or two a year).   

 

[+mesillywoohoo]

2 hours ago, Mermaid.Man said:

Every other week seems excessive. I like to check my caches every 6 months and I'll post an owner maintenance log when I do. 

 

My caches are in heavily muggled areas where others have vanished. Two of them are super special containers and I don't expect them not to get walked off with at some point. 

 

24 minutes ago, cerberus1 said:

 

Are your containers so fragile that they need that much maintenance ?  If they're quality containers, you should be good for a while.  

If you're going to continue this maintenance plan, at 5-14 logs, your Owner Maintenance logs could end up more than finds.  

If you're okay with that, cool I guess...

I have two left that my yearly Temp Disable/Enable logs for a busy hunting season outnumber all finds (of maybe one or two a year).   

 

 

Not fragile but they get gushes about 'oh it's such a neat container!' And I've had neat containers wander off. And I won't log the maintenance log every time we go but I was thinking doing it periodically.  They are in locations we're at every other week so we're like might as well check them and make sure they've not been stolen and stick some swag in there.

[+mesillywoohoo]

1 hour ago, barefootjeff said:

My caches don't get many finds relative to my visits so I generally only post an OM log if I've actually fixed something, otherwise the cache page just fills up with my logs. I noticed this on a cache a few years back when, over an eighteen month period, the only logs were my OMs which all pretty much said the same thing, that I'd cleared away the leaf litter from around the first waypoint:

 

I'm mindful that anyone using PQs only gets to see the five most recent logs and I don't want them all to be OMs from me saying everything's fine.

 

Thank you! That's very helpful! I will do that! Only do the log if I've done or added anything to it like a new log. Like today I added swag and cleared up some brush to the cache. So I'll log that but then other weeks when I just check don't log that.

Edited September 17, 2021 by mesillywoohoo

[+Max and 99]

5 minutes ago, mesillywoohoo said:

 

Thank you! That's very helpful! I will do that! Only do the log if I've done or added anything to it. Like today I added swag and cleared up some brush to the cache. So I'll log that but then other weeks when I just check don't log that.

I personally would not log every time I add swag. 

[+mesillywoohoo]

3 minutes ago, Max and 99 said:

I personally would not log every time I add swag. 

No but if I am logging actual maintenance and add it I will. I had to unbury it today because leaves have started to fall and it's an accessible cache so I needed to clean up the debris and added swag. So I said I cleaned up the debris and added swag. But I'm not going to log just when I add something. But I'll add it on if I do something that I also left something.

[+Jayeffel]

If there were NM logs or several DNF logs it would be beneficial to make note of maintenance -- whether or not it needed such. Routine, maybe even now and then, not every time.

 

[+kunarion]

13 hours ago, mesillywoohoo said:

So we are currently visiting our caches every other week for general check and maintenance if needed. Should I be logging a note with something like: All is good here at the cache ?? I never have before but now I've seen it on a few caches I've looked at and wonder if that's something I should be doing too?

 

If you check your cache and nothing changed, it's up to you whether to make a log.  If instead you change something that may affect Finders, it's good to make a log.  For example, there are a couple of Cache Owners near where I live that will repair a container, or move it to its spot after it was found in the wrong place, or even activate a cache and place the container later.  All of those actions will affect other cachers' decisions on when to hunt that cache.

 

There are times when it may be not so good an idea to make an Owner log.  When I place something cool into a cache, I usually make a log about it, but tend to be non-specific about what I placed  (except of course, Trackables).  And if someone has tried a couple of times and failed to find my cache, I might check on it, but I don't make a point to log that "it's still there".  Because I hate when Cache Owners do that when I can't find their cache.  But I do often write to the cacher to offer a hint.

 

It also depends on the cache.  A couple of my caches tend to be found by new cachers and muggles, and are therefore high maintenance.  I could check the cache after every Find and have something to work on, and especially when there's been a suspiciously quiet few weeks (it became misplaced? Nobody mentioned it).  A lot of "Micros" develop progressively wetter log sheets that you could replace after every rainstorm and still get NM logs.   Like others, I try not to fill up the online log with a mass of my Maintenance logs.  There's a balance.

 

Edited September 17, 2021 by kunarion

[+mesillywoohoo]

3 hours ago, kunarion said:

 

If you check your cache and nothing changed, it's up to you whether to make a log.  If instead you change something that may affect Finders, it's good to make a log.  For example, there are a couple of Cache Owners near where I live that will repair a container, or move it to its spot after it was found in the wrong place, or even activate a cache and place the container later.  All of those actions will affect other cachers' decisions on when to hunt that cache.

 

There are times when it may be not so good an idea to make an Owner log.  When I place something cool into a cache, I usually make a log about it, but tend to be non-specific about what I placed  (except of course, Trackables).  And if someone has tried a couple of times and failed to find my cache, I might check on it, but I don't make a point to log that "it's still there".  Because I hate when Cache Owners do that when I can't find their cache.  But I do often write to the cacher to offer a hint.

 

It also depends on the cache.  A couple of my caches tend to be found by new cachers and muggles, and are therefore high maintenance.  I could check the cache after every Find and have something to work on, and especially when there's been a suspiciously quiet few weeks (it became misplaced? Nobody mentioned it).  A lot of "Micros" develop progressively wetter log sheets that you could replace after every rainstorm and still get NM logs.   Like others, I try not to fill up the online log with a mass of my Maintenance logs.  There's a balance.

 

 

 

Thank you!

[+CAVinoGal]

22 hours ago, mesillywoohoo said:

So we are currently visiting our caches every other week for general check and maintenance if needed. Should I be logging a note with something like: All is good here at the cache ?? I never have before but now I've seen it on a few caches I've looked at and wonder if that's something I should be doing too?

 

There really is no "one size fits all" answer, as each geocache is unique and has its own set of circumstances.  You've been given lots of good advice here!

 

Within a 2 mile walk around my neighborhood, there are at least a dozen-15 geocaches, placed by my son, my husband, myself, and other cachers we know locally.  I walk the "loop" 3-4 days a week, eyeballing many of the caches as I go, checking placement after finds, especially checking after DNF's, and rarely write anything on the cache page.  Most are found consistently, and there's no need to do anything, especially clutter up the cache page with notes or OM's that all is well.

 

If I actually DO repair something, replace a container,  replace a soggy, wet logsheet (especially if it has been mentioned in logs), then I'll post an OM.  Otherwise, if all is well, then I just let it go - all the find logs attest to the fact that it's there, and findable.

[+dprovan]

My rule is to skip posting logs that are redundant. So in your case, if nothing has changed from one visit to the next, I wouldn't bother with a redundant OM. As you've already concluded, if you actually have to do something, it wouldn't be redundant. Also, if anyone couldn't find it since your last visit, that's another time to show you've confirmed it's still there.

[+CachedIronSkillet]

You could delete the old maintenance log and then enter a new one... 

Edited September 20, 2021 by CachedIronSkillet

[+NanCycle]

On 9/19/2021 at 11:51 PM, CachedIronSkillet said:

You could delete the old maintenance log and then enter a new one... 

Can you just edit the date of the old log?  I think so, but don't want to actually try it right now.

[+Pontiac_CZ]

2 hours ago, NanCycle said:

Can you just edit the date of the old log?  I think so, but don't want to actually try it right now.

Yep, you can. I've just successfully changed the date of my February OM log to yesterday's date.