my nephew

Hi Guys --yesterday I was in the city with Rhonda while she gave a course at the teachers work shop --I made arrangements to meet my nephew for breakfast around 10 am in Halifax --- he is from Antigonish and is 22 and is in the city getting radiation treatment on a tumor in his head --he also has  NF2 ... as does his 24 year old brother -  Andrew also has the tumors on his spine and his legs --- he is a great guy -- he was very interested in my CI as u can imagine . He has a colledge degree but he told me he plants trees all summer for a living as he loves the outside so much ...so I said did u ever hear of "geocaching" ... No he says so after breakfast out we go -- found first one then 2nd one was mia but from the logs we saw exactly what had happened --then on way home I showed him a cache that he walked by every morning ---- when he got out of the car he was soooooo excited .. said headed right in to register on geo com --- he said wait till i show Kevin --his brother and his dad ... he thanked me not for info on CI or breakfast but for telling him and showing him geo caching ----- thing I added a new cacher to NS ---
have a great weekend -- chris  

This week

Well it has been a while since I posted a blog --- that is not a good thing when toooo busy to go caching LOL !!
Woke up Monday am to rain a dentist appointment at 11 am and 12 new caches published close to home ---
DELI MA !!!! hahahhahahhah
Sent Rick 7 Ken a note saying I had afternoon free and rain suppose to stop and lets go caching .... Unfortunatly Ken was tied up but Rick was free -- we got away around 1 30 pm -- dentist was slow .....
First 2 caches easy FTF !!!!!then a snag  on next one -- could not find it -- dam I was standing right where it should be but could not find it -- remember this statement for wednesday trip hahhahahhah
then onto service road caches but a bridge cache along the way that we had not done --trolls did not get us so on we go -- be dammed if next cache  was not another DNF --- wtf .... I was not happy ... next  1 Great FTF ..
next one -- 2nd to find ??? where did this cacher come from --it is middle of series ?? next 2nd to find .. next 2nd ...next another DNF ......coming out on road along comes cacher -- GWT Peter ... think that is right -- one cache left at end of road --he went there but did not have coords --- off we go together --- very tough climb down but we all go ... WE COULD NOT FIND THAT LITTLE SUCKER ----
back on road  Peter tells us he did find one of the ones we could not get --he said very well camoed --- he could not find one we found so we told him where ---- home now with 9 out 13 but 4 DNF ..... only 1/2 happy ...lol .............
Tuesday ..work at hospital and one more cache is published on the service road --- checked Tuesday night and that Peter found all the caches so I mailed Rick and said tomorrow I am going back for the DNF --all but the last one --I am not crawling down that bank again ,,,,,Rick said --"I will be ready" LOL ......
Left at 9 and stopped at out first  DNF --- quick look where we thought then I went back to original spot --- thought for a minute -- moved the one rick I had moved on Monday then I moved the 2nd rock and Yahooo there it was---- how stupid of me ..... the next 2  DNF we walked right up to --grabbed the new cache that was there  and home cutting lawns by 11 am .... Monday I did beat the 1800 mark --
Tomorrow I am going with my sister to B water for a medical test and have a few quick P&G I hope to get --
Looking forward to the bike ride next week .... talk alter Chris

Just Amoung Cachers

I think i mentioned that i was invited to do the cache Just Amoung Cachers with Hirtle & Ieatcrayons. My part of the cache was in the Rossignol District. i decided to do it while staying at Keji last week. I drove to the gate on the road and then biked in the rest of the way. I know it's not possible but it seemed like it was uphill on the way in and on the way out. LOL.
Nice area to explore but i quickly found out that Hirtle had given me wrong co-rds. Luckily there was cell service so i could text Blackrattle who had previously found the cache. So off i went with corrected co-rds only to discover the log the cache was hidden in had been torn apart, probably by a bear. I took pics and emailed them to Blackrattle and he confirmed i had the right location and he also gave me the W co-rds that i was seeking at the time. We sent all the info including pics to the CO and we were given permission to log the find.
Quite an experience, but fun.

Bridgewater Caching

Rick and I had a good day in Bridgewater yesterday.

When we left New Minas at 8:00 AM it was raining a pretty good clip, but I had checked the weather radar and it looked promising.  By the time we got to Bridgewater and sat down for breakfast the sun was shining, although it stayed pretty windy all day long.

We had a possible list of 32, one of which I had done.  By the end of the day I had 11 finds and Rick had 12.  Not a big day, but it's not about the numbers!  We had fun, saw some great caches and memorable views.

Two memorable caches:
GC31Z5K - King's Labrinth - An excellent hide, really well done.  Added to my favourites.
GC1YA6F - You-Knee-Ke #5 - Really tricky.  Had to use a lifeline (thanks, Brian).  Even when I knew where and what it was I had to circle several times before spotting it.  It may be easier at a time of day when the sun angle is different, and we showed GZ as up at the edge of the upper parking lot, but enjoyed the hunt! 

A really good day!  But we missed Brian and Chris! 

Ken

Fryday !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Fryday of a very good week .... Monday was my sons birthday and wednesday was my sisters --Monday she was off so I went to city and took her a present and then we headed out together for son John's place to drop off a gift ---- but first we grabbed a new cache at the old St Pats high school where we both went --that was cool --- then down to Porters lake and we grabbed a few caches in the park down there ---- so that a good fun day ..my sister just loves caching .... then on wednesday after food bank took off to keji to stay at brians trailor --my first visit and I was so impressed and loved the place --- did the 5 caches in the park to earn a metal and also the caches are spread out so great chance to see different parts of park ,,,, I cannot wait to go back ... now on Sunday if weather ok Mac Nabs island which I have not been on in 45 years ---- that seems funny to say that ---- great week ......................... Have a great weekend guys --- Chris

Good Old Spurr Road

Some of the guys got back to Spurr Road yesterday. (Missed you Brian - you were often spoken of and even more often thought of!) I came away with 48 finds, a new personal day`s best, which brings me up to 1696 finds. Not too dusty!

Finally 1700

Well had that one with Rick then yesterday thanks to a text a Friend brian I got one in Bridgewater and today had my grand son all day and did manage to grab 3 in Point Pleasant park before he got too tired --  That gave me 1700 ----then he conned me to drive to Bedford to chicken burger for lunch .. fun day but I am tired -- we were together for 8 hours --we did go see my audiologist and she did change the rusty magnet but said most is the heat and band aids I have to use ---- at least I know ---- have a good long weekend -- we have company coming and they like to party so a few days of good CHEER ..... later guys 

today

Hi Guys ... worked at hospital today then a drop in to see Rick --he got new hearing aid today and wanted to go get some cache --- we went out but bugs were bad -- he got 2 and I got one ---- he is aweful keen to go back to Tancook ---- gotta jet as going out with R tonight and Rissers tomorrow -- later guys

been away from caching too long

yesterday we were taking the grand kids back to Porters lake -- we did have a lot of fun with them and they are great boys --just before we left I did a PQ for porters lake and got 19 caches so quick down load --- since Rhonda forgot her book and was not up for any caching I just grabbed 4 quick P&G  then we headed to the Flash Mob --our 1st ..... but arrived about 25 minutes early and a new cache at exit 2a so had to grab that then we did the flash mob as we pulled up in our car who pulled in right behind but Sir Ken, Mr Rick 0 and Mrs O  and Laura ... fun ...so 6 for the day and now 7 short of 1700 ........maybe over the weekend in Bridgewater --
it seems like forever since we cached --- need to get back to the weekly jaunts ----
ok guys --talk alter -- Chris

August already

had to take a minute and update this blog -- my CI is awesome --really -- it has totally changed my life and also our life , Mine and Rhonda's .
This weekend saw all four of the grand kids --just short visits with all four but I was able to understand the boys when they talked and I could know when Lara talked --- wow that is so cool for me .... 
Summer has been busy , lots of company and as usual for me the one on ones are great but get everyone in the kitchen and oh man it is loud !!!
ok , here is why I am writing today cuz this was funny .... I sat at the lap top in the den for a few minutes and the window is open -- it is on my left side same as my CI --all of a sudden I am hearing this noise --some kind of motor and it loud -- I check everywhere in the house --- hahah I am turning radios on and off -- upstairs down and nothing but a loud loud noise so I go outside --- still there so I walk down the driveway and half way down the street -- what is that noise ?? All of a sudden it stops ---- quiet ...but what was it ???
No idea ---- but i was laughing at how funny I probably looked walking down the street with ear turned up listening to this sound ---
gotta laugh .,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, have a great August all and Adrian , for the record I started that level 1 at 10 o'clock and now at 12 o click --sometimes when alone I turn it higher but too loud when people around but soon ... 
Cheers to all -- Chris 
PS -- I just heard "Thunder" for first time or I think it is Thunder man it is soooo dark here right now --just heard it again ---
Oh Yeah ,,, Bring on the Storm  !!!!! MORE THUNDER >>>
So Cool OMG ...that was coming in the house ..amazing and I can hear the rain ----- too cool --but gotta close some windows ,,,,

Montreal Caching 2.1

More subway riding this afternoon, with another long walk after I got off the train. I now have all the clues I should have used to solve the virtual / puzzle / multi cache but didn't need!

What a beautiful park the clues were in! And what beautiful ladies were in said park....

Jan headed out to Montreal Place and Eaton Centre for shopping while I was at the park.

Beautiful day here. A little cloudy this morning, but sunny and warm this afternoon.

Montreal Caching 2.0

Well, an interesting morning. I have been working on a multi / puzzle / virtual cache from home. Today we went out to try and find the final location. It is a particular statue in downtown Montreal, which we found with no problem at all.

The interesting part of the morning was that it was too far for Jan to walk and the taxi fare would have been excessive. So for $8.00 each I bought two "Occasional" Metro (subway) 24 hour cards. Instead of paying $3.00 per trip we can now ride the subway unlimited for the next 24 hours. Not a bad deal at all.

So we spent the morning riding the rails under the city to the points of the virtual puzzle cache.

Speaking of which, please have a look at GC619C - that's the cache I'm after. Should I be looking for a log book to sign or once I have the password to the certificate referred to at the bottom of the page am I done and eligible to log the find? I e-mailed the CO but he hasn't answered me. I would really appreciate your opinion.

Ken

Montreal Caching

Well, it's been a while since any of us posted here, so here is a quick post before I call it a night.

I went for a 3.8 km walk tonight and found a puzzle cache at University of Quebec at Montreal that I had solved before I left home! It seemed like a long walk all alone with nobody to talk with - that makes the walk go faster!

But the cache was an excellent hide and the coordinates were absolutely bang on.

Tomorrow we have a little more caching planned, which includes a trip to a local park and the Montreal Planetarium, likely some shopping and the concert tomorrow evening!

FTF Day

Interesting day for FTF's. A new cache published last night in the Sobey's parking lot in Liverpool. I put it in my GPS before i went to bed with the thought of getting it this morning. Vic and i went up and got FTF and i went to log it the cache page said it wasn't published yet. For some reason the took the listing off, i am still going to claim FTF as soon as it gets published again.
Meanwhile in the morning a few more caches published out on Hwy 8 so Vic & i went after those in the PM. We got Ftf on those 2 and went after a few more caches in the Greenfield area we didn't have yet. There was a cache that came out over a month ago GC2WNKQ that hadn't been found yet so we went after that cache. Much to my surprise i found it after only 10 min of searching and got Ftf on that also. That made 4 for today.
Will make a list for Liverpool area for you guys for Sunday and let you know when it was up. More caching tomorrow. great week so far.

Cape sable Island

Vic is off this week so we are doing a little running around. Monday we went up to Cape Sable Island for the day. Vic wanted to visit some beaches we haven't been to before and of course i wanted to get some caches. Ervin's caches along the beaches on Cape Sable Island fit the bill for us both. We had a great day, got 18 caches, walked some nice beaches and got some beach glass. At one cache on South Side Beach 2 fisheries officers stopped and i thought we were in trouble. The female officer got out and said you must be geocaching, she takes her kids caching and has found some of Ervin's before. We only got about half the caches on the island so i guess another trip back is in order.

This morning i was up early (6:15) and noticed a new cache out not far from home. I threw on some clothes and was out the door before 7 and everybody else was still in bed. Got to the site and the co-rds put me right in the middle of the parking area. Searched for about 1/2 hour with no luck and heard a car coming and i knew it had to be Blackrattle. We all searched for another 1/2 hour and no luck. i logged a dnf stating the co-rds placed me at the parking area. The cache owner dissabled the cache right away stating she must have made a mistake in the co-rds, there was a wasted 2 hours. The Blackrattles and me meet quite often early mornings at cache sites. LOL

Me, Myself and I

Yes, that's right, the three of us - Me, Myself and I - all got out for a couple of hours today. I grabbed five caches between Berwick and the west end of Kentville. What a beautiful afternoon weather-wise. In fact, it was a little too warm at times. A sign of things to come with any amount of luck.

Anyway, the caches were all pretty new. I was anywhere from the second to the fourth cacher to sign the log, depending on the cache. A couple of short hikes, one God awful bushwhack and a set of stairs 74 steps long. Only one was anything near a park and grab!

Nice to be out. But it will be more fun on Wednesday with all of us together on Big Tancook! Can't wait!

Ken

June 8 /11 -- city caches

Hey my day stared much earlier then planned because Rhonda had thrown out her back so I had to drive her to school and my appointment with audio was not till 11 am. good thing I had all my city caches in my GPS before I went to bed --- I left R at school around 9 am then a bite of breakfast at A&W then into city -- Costco for propane and a few supplies then onto my appointment on Spring Garden Rd --- looking at the map of south End of city I had 10 caches with no smiles other than Point Pleasant Park caches which we should do some day --of the 10 I got 8 and would have gotten the other two but muggles standing right in front of tree where cahes were . Both cahes I made 3 different tries but people , people , people ...... that took me 2 hours then I had to go back to get Rhonda for a 3 pm appointment .... fun quick city caches and all safe to do ......looking forward to Tancook ..... Chris 

A Visit to Lunenburg

Today we wanted to get out for the day and Jan couldn't decide where she wanted go, so at 12:30 PM I told her that we would go to Lunenburg for a late lunch and a visit to the Bluenose II restoration site - and oh, by the way, I was going to pick up one cache while we were in town!

We had a great lunch overlooking the harbour, I grabbed the Fisherman's Silhouette cache and then we spent an hour learning about the Bluenose II restoration. Really neat, and a great day!

I had already searched a couple of times for Fisherman's Silhouette but found out that it had been muggled and not yet replaced both times! Today I walked right up to it without a GPSr, looked where I always thought it should be right from day 1 and there it was! It really was a quick and easy find - today!

Yes, it was very nice in Lunenburg today. We both enjoy the town of Lunenburg and are already planning our next visit - we would kind of like to take the horse-drawn carriage tour of the town if it's not outrageously expensive....

Sunny Monday

Ok it was a rainy Monday when I started out but first let me take you  back to yesterday and my decision that I had a lot to do around this house and yard so one day a week for caching and rest  of the time work, work , work ...lol
Woke up today to all these caches in my mail box so i thought ok look to see where they are --- OMG -- 2 with 15 kms of home and I know they would be fun -- call Rick and text Ken but both not available -- should I or should I do my work so I put one load of laundry in the washer --then I loaded up the GPS and I took off hahhahha.... 1st cache was in a cemetery that I have driven by 100 times and never knew it was there -- tricky micro but I got FTF then off to 2nd one --- it took me longer as GPS was jumping around but when I saw it I knew right away  2nd FTF -- so looked on my phone for one more close one grabbed it and now back home and work to do but not before my blog to my buddies --- have a good day ..I know Brian and Vicki are coming home tonight --- you were all over the island -- very cool -- later guys

Travel Bug

One of my travel bugs has been stuck on PEI for some time now. It just started moving lately and i was heading to the cache it was in to pick it up and return it to the NS. We were 10 miles away from the cache and got email notifaction that somebody had retreived it, so close. Having a great time, wish it was a little warmer though. Supposed to be nicer tomorrow.

We were at North Cape today, neat spot. Windmill farm there now.

road trip

Got my first caches outside of NS yesterday. Got a few in NB and now some in PEI. Stayed at a B&B in Summerside, hitting the road soon. Staying at a B&B in Charlottetown tonight. Got my 1400th yesterday.

From DNF to FTF and Between

I got out for a little while yesterday afternoon - I just had to get out of the house and Claire e-mailed me so off we went!

Our main goal was to search for one of Leona's caches, GC2TN40 - Hiding from the Owl, which she and Barry had DNFed on as had Chris and I. Well, we arrived to search and soon found that we were out numbered. By blackflies. They were around me in clouds, more than I have ever seen in one place. Couldn't even breathe without inhaling flies. Neither of us apparently being very smart, we both forgot fly dope. I swear the flies were about to carry me off, so I told Claire to keep feeding them as long as she wanted to, I would be in the truck. It wasn't long before she joined me and we left the area. Still no smilie.

I did grab a couple of other caches on the way to and from Leona's, so it wasn't a complete loss.

While we were out my phone alarmed with a new cache notification. When I got home I found GC2WQED - Summer Summer Summer, was in Canning. After dinner it still hadn't been found so I decided to head out. I snagged FTF at 1834! I was surprised that somebody else hadn't been out in the 5 hours or so since the reviewer published the cache. It is kind of neat because the cache is on the CO's property and he comments in the description that somebody will probably be watching from inside the house. Sure enough, I saw at least two "observers" and gave them a wave. I took my time signing up the log and replacing the cache in the hope that somebody would come out for a chat but no such luck.

So many caches

So many new caches came out yesterday in my area, close to 50, we just had to go after a few. We chose some caches by Crash & Dash who have just recently started hiding caches. They have a very old etrex and are always making the comment on caches they find that the co-rds are way off, get tired of reading their logs after awhile. Well 5 of their 6 caches that we found yesterday the co-rds were off by 40 to 80 feet, Blackrattle was FTF and i called him and he made the same comment. The last on for yesterday the co-rds put me right in the middle of the paved road so i didn't know where to look, used the call a friend option (Blackrattle) to get this one. Took them a long time to find it and they stumbled on it quite by accident. The hint said P&G. We weren't having any fun so we called it quits and left the rest for some other day.

1600?

I just noticed that Chris hit # 1600 today - congratulations, Nova Man! If you made mention of that while we were out I guess I had better learn to pay better attention! Sorry about that!

Ken

The Caching Run that Wasn't

Well, Rick and I had planned a run today, but unfortunately it didn't happen.

Jan hadn't been feeling well for a couple of days but absolutely refused to let me take her to the emergency room. I went to a Lodge meeting in Windsor Thursday evening and arrived back home around 11:00 PM to find a note from her telling me that she had driven herself to the hospital. I changed my clothes and headed up to see what was going on.

She had been suffering from terrible indigestion and belly pain for two days, but what worried her was that her left arm had gone numb. That can be a sign of cardiac involvement, of course.

They did a bunch of tests which they felt ruled out cardiac issues and gave her a "pink lady," a term used for a drug cocktail used to treat gastroesophageal reflux. It consists of an antacid and the anaesthetic lidocaine. The name of the preparation comes from its colour - pink.

By that time it was 3:30 AM and I headed home, pretty well exhausted, and went to bed. Jan was there until 5:30 AM. They sent her home with a prescription for a new to her drug to combat acid reflux.

So, after all of that I got up between 7:30 and 7:45 AM and called Rick to cancel - I just was too tired to go caching. I checked on Jan and she was resting comfortably so I went back to bed myself.

Too bad, it's not a bad day outside for geocaching.

Friday adventure

Well it has been a busy 2 weeks and I have been helping lots of folks so yesterday was awesome to have the day just to me . Ken and I had a great day -- we drove thru some very pretty places ----got 11 caches --- 1 DNF -- impossible and unreasonable caches are not fun LOL ... now what would I have said it we had found it hahhahhahha .....
I felt very relaxed when I got home .... of course the circus was still on  here and life is busy again but yesterday was great !!!
have a good weekend ---- Chris 

today

hey guys ... been one crazy week in this house and today just before Rhonda left for school she called over to her sister sue to see how she is this am -- well they were all asleep and my niece needed to go to school so Unkie gets dressed to go drive her to Horton ,,, after I drop her off look at my phone and 2 new caches nearby -- 1st is a cemetery --only have nuvi --set coords and of we go --- 10 minutes later way up the mountain we arrive --- so I just walk from tree to tree till I find  the cache hahhahahha ...
2nd cache coods in and takes to land of Evangeline but no way  do I have any idea where the cache is so home I go because I needed to cook for sue --  we had eggs and did all the things she needed done till 2 pm and then she said she wanted to sleep so home I went --- then Mark my #2 son who came home from Quebec yesterday texed and said he was coming over -- I grabbed the GPS and when he drove in we went for the cache --
 2nd FTF of the day ...amazing -- this one  was a good cache -- well done -- You guys will like it --then one more quick cache and then Wolfville for groceries for supper then home -- by the old road BUT going over the railway tracks we hit a bump and then -- back tire flat --- they pulled out a 3 inch bolt 0000 man -- called rick but had it changed before he arrived .... new tire on now ---  home had a great supper with Rhonda and mark -- Mark now gone to Nick's place ( #3 son in falmouth ) .. rhonda gone to see sue and I am about ready for bed ,,,,
But 2 ftf ..... a cahe  and a couple of good deeds -- supper and 3 loads of laundry ----
Not a bad day  Nova Man !!!!

Smilies on Google Maps

I'm sure you have noticed that the smilies indicating our finds still aren't back on the Geocaching.com Google Maps. Here is the post from the feedback forum explaining why:


The addition of many new major features plus the record traffic levels we're experiencing has caused some serious performance issues for the site. Some features like the personalization of the maps have been disabled temporarily just to allow the site to function. Fixing these and other performance issues is a top priority.

In the meantime, you can access the beta map (http://www.geocaching.com/map/beta) and still have personalization. (However, keep in mind that display of PMO caches has not yet been implemented on the beta map.)


So it was a conscious decision by Groundspeak to disable them. That really sucks.

Ken

GC2NG62 - R0AR!!! Sue the T-Rex

GC2NG62 - R0AR!!! Sue the T-Rex is a puzzle cache, probably one of the most difficult geocaching puzzles I have ever solved. I had to have a little help from a friend to get the job done. I then set the result aside because it was just too far to go. And I knew that at some point I would be in the neighbourhood. Today was that day.

I was invited to a 40th anniversary celebration for a former colleague and his wife in Timberlea today so I loaded up the waypoint in both my Oregon and Nuvi. After the party I headed out on the hunt, complete with dress shoes and a tie! I soon realized that I had loaded both GPSr's directly from the cache page instead of GSAK, which had the corrected coordinates. In other words I was navigating to the wrong location. I did have the corrected coordinates in my iPod, though, so I pulled over and edited the numbers in both receivers. After that it was a quick find!

One other thing happened today. I had loaded all Nova Scotia waypoints to my Nuvi as points of interest. When you make the load, you have the option to set an alarm as you arrive at a given distance from a POI. I could see problems with that, so to be safe I set a rather conservative (so I thought) distance of 200 meters.

Wrong move!

That frickin' Nuvi alarmed quite regularly all the way in on the 101. And when I got to the St. Margarets Bay Road it beeped almost constantly. At one point I counted 23 alarms in a row - bing bing bing 23 times. I thought I was going to go nuts. I couldn't shut the Nuvi off because I needed it to direct me to my destination. So I had to put up with it.

I swear, I am going to hear that alarm in my sleep tonight.

Needless to say, the Nuvi got reloaded tonight with no alarm set. Not going to fool me twice.... I hope.

Saturday Afternoon Caching

Well, Claire got off work at 1:00 PM today so I went to their place shortly before then and she, Barry and I spent the afternoon caching together. We grabbed a total of 15 with no DNF's mostly in the Kingston area. Nice afternoon, but wow am I tired tonight!

Off to Truro tomorrow where I will spend the day taking a course as an adult advisor of the local chapter of DeMolay. I hope they serve coffee, I may need it.

But now for some NHL Stanley Cup Playoff action!

saturday

today was Rhonda last saturday at her course so we left a bit early as I wanted to stop at my cache at exit 10 to replace the cache holder that is MIA -- well the one  I brought was too small and fell all the way in and when i was going back to car my feet got caught in reeds and I feel right in front of car -- ripped my new jeans --- just skinned my knee but I feel pretty hard and of course Rhonda was worried I hurt my self -- I told her just my pride -- a man getting coffee at just us came right over to see if I was ok ... anyway on we went I dropped R at her course and had an hour so went after Valley View -- I had the right co-ords last saturday but did not want to park my car on the exit ramp and did not like the hill so did not do it last week but today I parked right in the field by the exit 11 and walked 150 m to cache and it was all flat --- so got that one off my list ...
Cya Monday weather looks great --- have a good night -- Chris

Caching with non cachers.

I had been working everyday all week for 1 person or another trying to tie up all the loose ends before th 21st. Since it was nice and sunny yesterday decided to take the day off to enjoy the fine day. Made arrangements to meet non caching friends (Yvonne & Danny Hennigar) at Swiss Chalet in Bridgewater and then planned for Vic & me to do a little caching. Our friends had no plans for the afternoon so it was decided they would go with us. We headed to the Riverport area to do a few easy caches as Vic can't walk on uneven ground yet. It was beautiful in that area with the sun shining off the water, the wind was a little cool though. Danny got out first at every cache and found a few of them. Yvonne even made the find on one that was giving us trouble. We got 8 finds with 1 DNF. I don't think i made cachers out of them but they enjoyed the outing and said we should try to get together once a month to do things together.

Two Days in a Row!

Well, I got out caching again today for a short time all by my lonesome. I was 3 for 3 when I headed home, and those were the only caches on my list today. I picked up both Treasure in the Trees Eh? 2 and 3 as well as Hugh's new one that Chris got the FTF on yesterday.

I was a little nervous when I got to Hugh's - it was in the pile of rocks that forms part of the dike, and you know me and piles of rocks. I almost walked away, but then I spent a couple of minutes studying the site. I decided that if I sat down on one large flat rock and swung my legs around its edge my feet would then be on another large rock below. So that is exactly what I did. Both rocks were large enough to be safe and steady. I grabbed the cache which was under the rock I sat on (right where I expected it to be), signed up the log, sat back down and swung my legs back up to the top. Too easy and perfectly safe!

today

hey guys --turned out that the oral surgery my sister was having was a bone graft and a post implant so much bigger than I thought so was longer and she needed more care -- I did manage to grab a cache in Dartmouth where my daughter in law works as I was dropping off a  birthday present and then one cache after leaving my sisters --- cya Monday

Yesterday

First I was glad to see that Ken did get out yesterday -- our communications lines were tangled --- I saw huey's puzzlle come up and looked simple - but need someone who could here video -- but first I had an e-mail that a big load of food arrived at food bank so had to go there first and was the 2 1/2 hrs putting the stuff on the shelves -- then by Rick;s but no one home and then texted Ken but no answer then sent Brian a text to please look at this video -- that did not work for Brian so tried with my ear right ti the speaker -- hahhahah funny to see but no go so I just googled the ?? and got my answer then off I went -- it was out on the Dykes and wind  was so strong -- the CI was making so much noise from wind that it actually hurt and I so I took it out -- found cache and got a FTF --Yahoo then on Evangeline beach Micro -- now I am not going to tell you how many times I have been here but I will say that every time I was in the wrong spot --that makes me feel better as it si a guard rail cache -- hahhahahhahahah so finally got that done then home ----
Today I am in city with my sister and I have to go to Dartmouth for one stop so I just put halifax , darthmouth in the search and ran a PQ and now have 500 caches loaded hahhahhahhahah Gonna be a busy day ,,,,
See you both Monday -- Have a great weekend --- Chris

Went out with Claire for an hour and a half after she finished work today, then we picked up Barry and went for another hour or so. I ended up with five new finds, so nothing spectacular. We did a couple of long walks on the R2T trail in the Auburn - Kingston area, it was a nice day to be out!

tuesday

Well my computer work got cancelled today as hospital is in lock down due to a flue illness in hospital . I had lots of work here at house to do as  I have not done much in weeks and then a chiropractor appt at 2 30pm . Well at 10 am a new ToNS cache in Windsor of all places --- lately not a lot of action around so I thought I was pretty safe for a few hours --I worked very quickly and got my list done and headed out after my lunch  and had the cache logged within 20 minutes of leaving home ...there ws another but I had mt shoes on and not a lot of time ---- just checked and it is still not done but food bank in morning and dentist at 1 30 pm and helping a friend to learn how to use his  GPS later in the afternoon so maybe just 1  FTF for Nova Man this week .... have a good night and looking forward to Monday ... Chris 

April 9th

Vic and i ran away from home for the day, hired a sitter and took off. Went to the city for more supplies for the kitchen and then had time to do some caching. Looked for a series i could do that wouldn't interfere with a day trip for the 4 of us. Thought of Chris's WWR series and off we went. They are Chris's caches and i knew Rick and Ken had already done them so they were a perfect choice. We had a great time doing the series and i reached 1300 on WWR 15. We got to see the Church up on blocks waiting to go. Arrived home around 9:00 tired but happy with the day we had.

Elusive cache

Ok i went back today for another crack at the cache at Beach meadows Beach. I bent down and looked under the building and there it was looking me right in the face, don't you just hate that. I had my good luck charm (Vic) with me today, maybe that made the difference. I don't understand how i missed it the last times i was there. Our trip to Pei for this weekend is off. Too many strikes against it. Strike 1: Dave's program at the center is cancelled for Friday so he will be home all day and the sitter isn't available till later in the afternoon. Strike 2: Amanda isn't feeling very good and i didn't want her to have to look after Dave when she isn't up to snuff. Strike 3: Vic pulled her hamstring in back of her right knee. She has been on crutches for the last couple days and moved up to a cane today. She wouldn't be comfortable driving and couldn't do any hikes. We have another opportunity in mid May so we will have another crack at it then.

Sunday

Hey Guys , I really do enjoy our blog and it is better than e mail I think ... I could just see Brian at that cache site ,,I had one like that on a foundation and I am sure the last cacher knocked it off ... it eventually became disabled but they are frustrating for sure ,,,,,I grabbed a cache on Friday in sackville that I had visited before with no luck and this time had a hint and yes I did find it but it was very tricky and without the additional hint I do not think I would have gotten it. I like when I can get them without the additional hint but sometimes .........it is needed ......
Brian  the trip away for you and Vicki sounds awesome and it is so neat that she is now so into caching --it will make the trip so much better and enjoyable for you and for Vicki ... have a great time ....
ok , not sure why I am so tired but been a very busy week and lots going on and it seems like I was in a hearing situation 24/7 this week and that is tiring for me so gonna sign off ...
have a great week guys ......

Friday

Made my 5th attempt at a new cache 1.5 miles from my house and still no luck. That was after a big hint from the female half of Blackrattle who were FTF. The cache is at Beach Meadows Beach and is tucked up under a combination change house and out house and the CO says it is winter friendly. I know where the cache is supposed to be but you can't see up under as it is too close to the ground. I've run my hands up under so many times i know every knot in the wood by heart. I am goint to back off on this cache till somebody else finds it. There is a ledge up under and a drop off behind it and i suspect that when Blackrattle put it back it fell off the ledge. On another note Vickie and I are planning a 4 day road trip starting next Friday. We are going to NB & PEI. Of course there will be some caching involved. LOL. I have the PEI database already built and ready to load to my GPS units. Should be a fun trip. Amanda is coming over to stay with Dave from Fri evening till Sunday afternoon and then we have a sitter booked till we get home on Monday. I can't remember the last time we were away that long together. Yahoo!!!!!

Great day Thurs

Spent all day Thurs outdoors and what a great day. Started out the day replacing a cache for Escaper, i was FTF on the cache when it came out last year so i knew where it was supposed to be. Left a new container in a slightly different spot as the org. was right on the ground. Sent a email to Gary from the sight with the new co-rds and info and he had the listing reactivated with the new co-rds in less than 5 mins. Now that's efficient.LOL Then moved on to Convent's multi cache which i have adopted. Leona & Kevin did it on Sunday and sent a text to me that the stage that had beads on a string with the co-rd numbers painted on the beads was broken. The beads were there in a pile so i sent her the cords for the next stage. She left a bullet container with the next co-rds on a piece of paper. I went today to retrieve the beads but couldn't find them. Sent a text to Leona and got a reply that she has them in her truck. I wish she would have told me that before i drove down. I had a list of caches i was going to work on until i got a call from Vic that she was getting off at 12:00 and if i could meet her in town. I had time for 1 cache that required a hike and on P&G before i headed off to meet Vic. We had lunch by the water in Town by the bridge then drove out to Port Laherbert Pockect Wilderness. We hiked the trails and Vic got 4 caches and i got the 1 that i didn't have from there yet. All in all a great day.

WWR Series

Today I teamed up with Miss. LaLa77 and rick o to do Nova Man's WWR series plus one other cache to make for an even 20 caches on the list.

We did a clean sweep - 20 for 20 - and we were back in Hantsport in just over three hours. Now that is what I call a good day of caching. Well, a good half day, anyway!

Chris, all kidding aside, that WWR series is a great series - easy finds not far off a road that is not well travelled so we didn't have to worry about too much traffic! I really enjoyed the time we spent on the Walton Woods Road, thanks for putting all of those caches out so we could go out and play!

We went right in to Walton to check on the church that was supposed to be loaded on the ferry last year. It's still sitting exactly where it was last November. And it looks like it didn't winter well. If it ever does make it to the winery, I wonder if they will be able to rebuild it or if it will become scrap lumber?

sat night

Hi Guys --- hope that you had a good day and wondering if ken found a new Geo Mobile ??? On saturdays Rhonda goes to an hour and half course in wolfville and I usually go and then get groceries or coffee or caches ... today I went for the 1st part of Huey's new cache Valley View and then a quick P&G that ken did yesterday ... so kinda got 1 1/2 today ... got the right answer when I got home so maybe grab it later in the week.Really tired tonight as we were out late last night so off to bed . Oh re my E mail account and caching e mails -- I finally just put a filter on the  e mails that come to " owner" and have those dumped in a file of own without a notification -- works well last night when I checked it i had 60 mails from 3 cachers that did my caches yesterday ... glad I have that worked out ... I got the notifications of new cahes published yesterday so works great .... later guys

Caching in the Snow

I went out after three today and ended up finding two, one in Wolfville and one in Greenwich. I tried for a second in Greenwich but came up empty - although I think I know now what I did wrong.

The one I found in Wolfville (Our Unsung Heroes - http://coord.info/GC2NWHN) has a bit of personal history for me which I mention in my log on gc.com.

As Chris would know, Diane of H4FF and Pam of Fundy and Valley did the Walton loop today as well as a number of caches between there and God knows where! I got a call from Diane at one point to ask about a cache and I later met up with them while they grabbed something to eat. We talked for almost two hours! They were heading out for more when we left Subway at almost 7:00 PM!

I may go out again tomorrow. But I also have to do groceries, visit Kentville Chrysler and Cornwallis motors - time to talk trade - so it will be a busy day!

Today -- wednesday

Hey I just saw that we have 68 posts ---that is neat -- had to go to city today for a quick CI appointment --all is good -- will blog about it in a bit -- I had the GPS and phone but no caches loaded but did know of few that I did and the other 2 I got from phone ---- but it took a while -- look at phone -- add to  car gps  by hand then add to 60 cx by hand but it was neat ---- got 5 in city before had to leave and one in Falmouth now that snow banks down a bit --- cya both tomorrow --looking forward to it ,,, chris

monday

hey really sounds like Vicki has the fever !!!! Lucky you Brian ..... helps a lot I am sure --- well the oother day a new cache was published in Wolfville and we had met the cache owner the other day --Ken, Rick anmd I so on Friday I had to drive my neice to basket ball practice at Acadia so I did a quick grab on way home ... yesterday afternoon my caches got published on Walton Woods Road --- 4 different set of cachers went after them , one group from Truro .... amazing ---- loved reading all there logs but something else to take my time hahhahha --there were over 70 e-mails incl;uding all the ones saying it was published so I am glad I have a filter set up and they do not go into my in box but rather a separate folder --only draw back is that I need to check that folder manually ---- cannot have everything -- have a great day -- Chris

Sat & Sun

Vic and i had a great time at the Curly's event on Sat. I think they said there were over 200 people in attendance and i talked to probably half of them. We did some caching before the event around the Enfield area and after around the airport. A great day overall.
Today a new cache was published around 4:00 PM 2.5 miles from home. I was watching the Nascar race and didn't hear my phone ding when the mail came in. I noticed it around 5:30 and mentioned it to Vickie. She was cooking supper and immeadiately turned off the stove and said what are you waiting for lets go get it. I think she has the bug. When we got there and saw the big footprints on the trail i knew we were too late as Blackrattle probably was there first. He beat us by about 1/2 hour. I called him and he thanked the Nascar gods for making me late and allowing him the FTF. LOL
Vic had a new cache published today and Blackrattle was FTF on that also.

Happy st paddy's day

hey Ken .. you are the man today !! A successful event last night and a FTF on a difficult puzzle today -- congrats to you ...........
Man things have been flying around here so little time to sit at computer.. so a quick note --- testerday I did get to do the Walton Woods rd and put out 19 caches --it was a lot of fun and I did enjoy doing it -- I grabbed three caches that I did not have so it was a fun day then home and put all those new caches on was a bit of work --just waiting for them to get posted -- Saturday event will keep a lot away but that is cool the caches will be there a long time . Rhonda came with me to the BP event last night and enjoyed herself a lot , Great ....
Okay I will not see you on saturday but have some fun and lets set a day for next week -- I will e-mail now ---
later Guys  

GC2Q36J - Is it about the Numbers??

A new puzzle was published sometime over night. See GC2Q36J - Is it about the Numbers??

I found it to be a challenging puzzle that actually runs three layers deep before you get the final coordinates. Solved it, headed out in the Jeep and made the FTF at 1040 hrs.

Great way to start the day!

Valley Event

A great event tonight - 32 cachers in attendance representing 20 teams. Our second anniversary for the Valley events!

Monday Morning

Since Chris hasn't mentioned it, I will jot a quick note about our outing yesterday.

Six new ToNS (Tastes of Nova Scotia) series caches were published Saturday night or Sunday. They were all between Greenwich and Grand Pre.

On Monday morning at 7:45 I met Rick and Chris in Greenwich where we grabbed the first one and parked my Jeep. We motored on through the six in the series in record time, Chris took us to another which he had but Rick and I didn't and we then took Rick to another which Chris and I already had.

While we were at it we stopped for coffee in Wolfville and were totally done by very shortly after 10:00 AM! None of them were FTF's, but we were out on a nice morning enjoying each other's company and grabbing caches. Life is good!

The final counts for the short run were:
Chris - 6
Ken - 7
Rick - 8

caches

hey a quick run to Bridgewater today with Rhonda and while she was in the shop I grabbed two quick ones -- I thought I had been to one before but maybe just same idea elsewhere I am going to check further --- tonight I started to get 20 caches ready for the Walton Woods rd run I hope to do early tomorrow morning . I have been almost 3 hours getting them all ready --- what a pile of work ----  just need to print off log sheets for two more then done all done ......... hope you both get to enjoy the nice weather tomorrow -- but I thinlk that Brian is still painting and Ken will be playing with the generator LOL --- later guys

5 yesterday

Hey Guys -- had to go to the city yesterday to have my CI checked and then a few hours before I had to pick up my son at the airport -- weather was not the best -- very wet and cold so needed a few p&G .... while I found 5 of them --- got them all --the Tons Series are very well done -- the fish one took me about 5 minutes to find at GZ --and - #6 --it was my  second try and I kinda just walked up and bingo knew exactly where it was --- so getting closer to the 1500 number -- but I miss not having some one with me to share the find --- next week R is off and right now is in bed with flue for day 3 but I think we turned the corner on it today so hopefully  we will get part of the week in -- not sure about wednesday night at BP or sat yet at Curley's ... but hoping for both -- definitely want a day caching  the week after ,,,,, have a great weekend -- Chris

Spring Caching in Maine

I spent part of the late morning and early afternoon caching today. I ended up with only 6 finds. I bet we travelled to 18 cache locations to find those 6 - everywhere you turn there are four foot high plow ridges and water everywhere. I's just impossible to get to a lot the caches as it stands here now!

GC6D43 - What in the World Cache?

Just grabbed the one cache today, GC6D43 - What in the World Cache?, a virtual at DeLorme HQ. A much nicer day here today! Sunny and +5. We did drive through areas today where we saw lots of evidence that there had been freezing rain Monday night - mile after mile of trees covered with ice, but none on the road! We saw a good AHL game tonight. The Portland Pirates beat the Hersey Bears 3 - 2 in a shootout. Some geocaching tomorrow and some shopping then the Jeff Dunham show in the evening.

my Monday story

hey Guys --my sister Patsy is 67 and uses a cane but she loves everytime we go looking for a cache --- mostly in the city but yesterday she had to go to Kentville to get her car serviced so I met her and we grabbed 4 caches --- she found them all --I gave her the GPS to carry -- she was in snow up to her knees and loved it ---- I am sure she is sore today ... at one point we were looking  for a cache called Tree Top and after a bit I looked for hint and it said 10 ft up .. so after a few minutes I hear something and patsy iis about 10 feet away and has spotted the cache and is yelling at me that she found it --then she is yelling at me that I heard her --- I laughed so hard at her -- then she said how do we reach that high cache --it was 10 ft in the air --- so I just picked up the tall Birch limb that it was on and showed her that it was only a broken tall limb and we could move it and get the cache -- she thought that was all pretty neat ..... okay I gotta jet -- disappointed that we will not get out for a few weeks but Life is busy ..................
Have a great day guys .... talk soon ...................

Monday in Maine

Well, we were away from home by 7:30 AM today. The day started out well, but the weather soon went downhill. It was 9° when we left home and in Salisbury NB it was 0°. And as hard as it may be to believe, between Salisbury and Sussex it went up to 10°! The mirrors and windows fogged up as we drove along the highway! We drove through rain showers and outright downpours until we arrived in Bangor around 3:30.

I had run a PQ for Caches Along a Route, Route 9, the "Airline Route" - Calais to Bangor - but there were so many high snow banks, side roads covered in glare ice and guard rails buried in snow that I didn't even get out of the Jeep! We did, however, stop at several stores once we were in Bangor....

We went to Olive Garden across the street from our hotel for an early dinner and by the time we came out an hour later it was snowing - and it's as cold as Greenland here.

We will go on to South Portland, where our hockey game and concert are on Tuesday & Wednesday nights, as soon as the roads clear in the morning. We will be stopping at the Delorme World HQ in Yarmouth, Maine, tomorrow so I can grab a virtual cache located there. I was within 3 meters of it when we were here last October but I didn't know about the virtual at that time. :-((

Ken

Friday Afternoon

I spent a good part of the afternoon caching with roxy1rose, the first time we have cached together, although we have exchanged e-mails over the past year or so and she has attended some of my events.

We had no problem this afternoon with Easy-Treesy (GC2P9YJ) once we found a decent access point to the dykeland. It was a nice snowshoe walk in from Kieren Pathway. Even saw some pheasants who really didn't want us there! I've never seen pheasants fly so far!

We then went to try Planter Dyke (GC27BEQ). CO Hugh and I had exchanged e-mails about it and he was concerned that I might have trouble getting around some large ice cakes that had washed ashore. Rose led the way and we had no problem at all. Well, I went into a wet sinkhole with my left foot up to my ankle, but no problem except a wet foot. My boot will be dry within a day or two!

Had a blast with Rose. We talked a blue streak, had a few laughs and spent the afternoon in the beautiful sunshine! Life is good!

GC2c9f2

Had to goto Bridgewater today so i had another crack at Ascension of the Watchers cache that we DNFed the last time we were out. Following the hint from Gary it still took 15 min to locate the cache. It will be nice not to have to visit this church everytime i goto Bridgewater. LOL
This cache also moved me into 101st place in Nova Scotia, i'll soon be joining you guys in the top 100.

Tuesday

hey B , Sunday sounds awesome time .... glad u had a good time .... well I got Rhonda  work room all ready for first coat of paint BUT Huey had a new puzzle cache - Easy Treesy .... so I had to put the room on hold for an hour or two I mean how long can one cache take --- read my log to Huey ... FTF for Rick 0 and I --- back home at 10 30am and now onto the room .... cya later Guys

Convent Event

Vickie & I attended the Convent's event in Bridgewater on Sunday. It was held at Tim Hortons and we overran the place with the number of cachers who showed up. Some cachers just stumbled on to the event by accident by just stopping in to get coffee. It was a good event with a chance to talk to cachers that i don't get to see very often. They had a neat idea for the door prises, they drew names and you got to choose a piece of paper that gave co-rds to a cache hidden for the event only, you were the only one with the location of that particular cache. You got to keep the cache and there was a prize in each one that you got to keep also. I got a Special Edition Coin for Canada's first geocache with ER's picture at the plaque on it.
After the event Vic, me & Melinda(half of Blackrattle) went to the Convent's house for a couple of hours. Leaona & Kevin showed up after a bit also. All in all a fun afternoon. I adopted 5 more of their caches also. They move to the US on Mar 17th. All of their caches have now been adopted and can remain in place.

New Caches

Like Brian, I saw several new caches published in the last 24 hours, six last night and a seventh this morning. FTF's on the six published last night were scooped up by AllWeatherHeather and Kayakate between 11:00 PM and midnight last night (!), but when we left the house this morning the last one was still available. But by the time we arrived at GZ it had been visited by four other cachers. I did manage to sign four logs, GC2P5QF, GC2P6VZ, GC2P6VW and GC2P6VQ. We were also at GC2P72B but I wasn't able to spot it in the few minutes I had to search before I realized that Jan had an appointment back at the house late in the afternoon, so we scooted for home.

As usual, Jan sat in the Jeep and read while I searched, but I did get a great buy on a pair of Cobra CXR700 GMRS Radios, so we can at least talk to each other!

Thurs FTFs

Checked the mail last night and 12 more caches on Blackrattle's trail just published. Should i stay home and work or go after the caches, i guess you know what happened. Got FTF on all 12 and moved up to #102 in NS only 4 behind # 101. I am trying to join you guys in the top 100 in NS. What a great day for a hike, when i started out the icey spots were frosty so i could get a grip but as the sun came out and the ice got a watery film on top it became very slick. Had to stick to the snow on the way back to the truck.
I see Rick got a few more churches today.
As a bonus today Vic got off early so i met her in town and we had a late lunch at The Golden Pond. gotta love those unexpected afternoon get togethers.
Off to Halifx tomorrow for more supplies for the kitchen reno, to Bridgewater Sunday for a geo event and weather permitting we will be in Kentville Monday for an appointment.

GC2NRJ1 - blue rocks

So late last night, at 11:20 PM, to be exact, I get an e-mailed log on GC2NRJ1 - blue rocks, which I searched for on February 16 without success. The log, written by the CO states "was not in place, however it is their now." I read into that, rightly or wrongly, that he submitted the cache and it was published before he even placed it in the park, maybe?

Anyway, I snagged FTF this morning at 0855. The coordinates are out 31 meters according to my Oregon so I marked a waypoint and added it to my log. To be honest, I'm happier about clearing my DNF than getting the FTF! The cache was EXACTLY where I thought it should be when I DNF'ed. I know I can be blind, but I KNOW it wasn't there last week.

On another note, and I realize I'm not the geocaching police so I won't mention it to the CO, but his note last night wasn't a note log as I would have posted, it was a found log! I don't think we are supposed to log our own hidden caches as finds are we?

Feb 18th

I looked at my profile Thurs evening and realized i hadn't found a cache yet in Feb, well that had to change. I decided to go after Blackrattle's lastest additions( about 2 weeks ago) to their R2T system they are developeing. There were 6 caches along the lgh of Summerville Beach. I had a nice little hike and got all 6 caches. Some of the hike i did along the beach and some along the road parralell to the beach. I felt funny to be walking on frozen sand, it was as hard as pavement. A good start to the day and then back home to do more work on the kitchen.
Looking forward to our run on Tues., will put up a list over the weekend to add to some of the churches Rick has lined up.

grand kids

hey my son in Porters lake is off for 2 weeks so said come on down and we will take the kids out cacheing ... great I said --- I will be there around 10 am ...then yesterday he mails me ...the kids have a play morning planned with a neighbor so why not come at lunch time ..so I said ok and arrived at 11 45 am to find  no one home and then he text me that he is running a bit behind but make my self at home ..so I go grab a cahe 3 km up the road and my son gets back around 12 30 ...then  we make lunch then at 1 pm he says oh I got a guy coming by to cut some tress down so while john is talking with this guy I play with the 2 boys ---at 2 pm john says I need to load a few caches --he has to load by hand --long story on that anyway by 2 45 we set off and we did 3 caches with his boys and they had fun .... I I did grab another in sackville on the way home . I left my place at 10 am and home at 5 30 ..5 caches .. long day but it was fun with the kids ... looking forward to seeing all Tuesday ..

today

I was laying in bed with my phone checking my e mails when I saw all the caches published ..saw one 20 kms from home -- saw another called blue rocks and thought it was done south shore -- dumb me I even open it but did not look at map or distance --- slacker I am ... I knew Rick was helping a friend today so mailed Ken but by 9 30 I got that itch so I took off and sure enough a quick FTF ... back home and check my mails ( which I should have done before I headed home ) anyway got home to find out that ken had mailed me and he just got in from blood work and was headed out to get Blue rocks which was just down road from him ... I was almost there earlier ahhahahha hopefully we both grab a FTF today --- nice sunny morning for a drive --- talk later  Chris

satisfying the itch .............

had the itch to get out sooooo bad ..... only day that would work was today and Laura was off so she came along with rick and ken .... and ken almost missed out cuz we did not use his g mail last night but at 6 am I was smart enough to think about forwarding all our mails to the g mail so off we all go at  10 am .... but wait I have been up since 5 30 am cuz I could not sleep cuz of that dam itch hahhahahh ... I will sleep well tonight .... I got the most for the day at 10 .... Ken is 8 i think and R&L at 6 .... great day but  man was it cold ... good thing most were defiantly  P&G ............... looking forward to a run soon to the south shore ... missed u Seeker --- later

Lower Sackville Event

Rick, Linda, Laura and I made the trek into the monthly event in Lower Sackville last night. Rick even celebrated his birthday a day early by taking advantage of a "free dinner on your birthday" promotion that he got by e-mail! The event was actually initially scheduled for last week but was postponed until this week due to the weather.

A good time, well attended, good food and great company!

Ken

GC2MZ31ToNS #7

Well Ken tells me about this cache being published Thursday night and for some reason I did not get notification or I just missed it ?? Anyway he tells me he tried on his way into city Thursday night  but lots of snow there ,,, no luck so since I am headed into city that morning I decide to stop ---I  have dress boots on so not going in  snow banks but I had a good look and went to Halifax , thought about it all way in and figured it had to be on light pole so back again on way home . Even took my hammer from trunk to looses some pegs on the pole . No luck .... I mail Ken and he says he is going back on saturday and talking with him later I find out he had no luck . 
This morning I called Rick and said u wanna  go look for this cache after 2 pm when not busy in restaurant, He said Ok so when I picked him up he said cache is in the tree out front !! I said how do u know --he said I just know . Anyway off we go and we look for over 1/2 an hour then Rick is gone somewhere comes back and says he talked to owner who knows it is hidden but no idea where but he sayd we could go on his property ....5 minutes later as I am hanging off the light pole  Rick yells --YAHOO !!! he snagged it --- on the dam tree in front that the sign is build around ----- FTF !!!!!! another great cache story for sure .................. 
Enjoy The Super Bowl tonight should be Great Football ... later 

My 2 cents worth

hey Guys , not on computer last night so just getting caught up now . I slept like a baby after our great day outside yesterday . It was a super hike in on the snow shoes and Yes Brian we did say that you would have loved it. As i said on my log this cache is team work and Ken was a great team partner and I could not have done it without him. . I have a few great caching memories and this will be one of them . Ok , I have to go get ready for this storm so talk later .....

Site Updates

Some interesting additions and fixes in the site update today. See all the details and the ongoing discussions here:

http://forums.groundspeak.com/GC/index.php?showtopic=268051

Huey's driver training - GC2KK91

Well, Chris and I each had a part in solving the puzzle (although he was SO CLOSE to the solution when he handed it off to me), so it was only fitting that we should go together to find the cache once we had the solution.

We had some trouble finding the correct way in (okay, there's no WE who had trouble - I was WRONG!) but we were eventually in the right spot and put on our snowshoes. It was an amazing way to get to the cache - I'm not sure we would have made it without the snowshoes, in fact. We had a tricky decent down into a little ravine with a frozen brook at the bottom, then we started to search. We looked in several places without luck and I think Chris was about ready to call it when he tried just one more spot. He turned and said, "I've got it right here." So we both yelled out Chris' normal YAHOO, he tossed the cache container out to me, I opened it up, found the log and signed it off.

The climb back out of the ravine on snowshoes was a great deal easier than I expected it to be and in a few minutes we were back at the car having spent approximately 45 minutes on the trail.

Huey's driver training was actually our second find today. Last night a new cache placed by roxy1rose called Treasure in the Trees EH? (GC2N419) was published. We actually went to it first hoping for an FTF but when we arrived there was another car parked at the parking coordinates. It turned out to be Kevin of 4CeasonS, but he hadn't snagged the FTF either. That honour belonged to r_sheppard who had beaten all of us by an hour or more.

I had started the day with an one hour walk at the indoor soccer facility in west-end Kentville, so I sure got my exercise today! I won't need much rocking to get to sleep tonight!

All in all, it was an awesome day! Now, if we could only sidestep the storm forecast for tomorrow....

Ken

January 26

Great day today, Guys! My final tally for the day, assuming I have logged everything correctly, was 18. A really good day on the trail!

A cold Monday

hey had to go to Halifax today to see Doctor so I loaded a few caches in -- picked up my sister as Rhonda could not get away from school today. That was ok because we were pretty sure all was good with me . We were right - doctors are pleased with CI and also tumors are stable so good for another year not 6 months as before. Then we decided to try a few caches --man it was soooooo cold -- we did grab 2 and one was at the new Oval so a new one ---- too cold to do any more ... lets hope warms up a bit for Wednesday .... cya then ... Chris

GPS issues in southeastern US

Let's be glad we don't live in the southeastern United States:

Don't panic, but anyone planning on using GPS in the southeastern US for the next month or so will likely want to make sure they have a fallback option. That's according to a flight advisory just issued by the FAA, which warns pilots that their GPS signal "may be unreliable or unavailable" due to "GPS tests" that the Department of Defense will be conducting between January 20th and February 22nd. Details are fairly light beyond that, but the FAA does note that when the "tests" occur they will be active for 45 minutes, and be followed by 15 minutes of off time -- additional notices to pilots will apparently be issued at least 24 hours prior to any test. Of course, while this particular advisory is directed at pilots, it will presumably will also affect all other GPS devices, as the FAA doesn't mention any GPS issues specific to aviation. The real question, however, is just what those mysterious "GPS tests" are -- if they're, in fact, GPS tests at all...

Found at:

http://www.engadget.com/2011/01/20/faa-warns-of-ongoing-gps-issues-in-southeastern-us-due-to-defens/

Friday

Hey inter net in down in house so just on phone and easier to post new5 then to add comment. Not having a good teck day.lol.
Your day yesterday sounded great till the end, Brian. I know Ken is now double jealous !. Lets hope weather OK and a
We can tie up together next week. Later Chris

Wed & Thurs

We were in the city on Wed, had Vic's parents in to visit their son and for an eye appointment which came about at the last minute. We dropped Vic's parents at the hospital and went to my appointment. We got to my appointment a little early so i opened up the geo app on my phone and discovered we were parked less than 50 feet from a cache. Well we just had to have a look, i didn't have my GPSr so i used my iphone to find the cache. It took me right to the exact tree the cache was in and along with reading the hint made for an easy find in the high muggle area. Neat to have the ability to search for caches even without the GPSr.
Thurs. was such a beautiful morning with the sun shining and a freah coat of snow on the trees and trails. I had 6 caches to finish on the trail that Blackrattle is developeing so i figured a nice easy hike to grab some caches was just the thing, wrong. The first 4 were easy but then the last 2 were on a section that hasn't been cut out for a long time. I had to bushwack for the last 2 and it was mostly through swapy ground as the trail was too overgrown to stay on and all the snow on the trees made it that much harder. I was glad the trail was close to the paved road and i hiked most of the way back to my truck along the pavement, much easier going.
Those 7 caches moved me up 1 more notch closer to the the top 100 in NS, I now sit at #107 overall in NS with 1176 caches.

Thursday Run

Hey Ken & Brian  ... we missed you guys today ... we went to Sackville, Bedford and Hammonds plains ----we cleared up 2 DNF from a year ago and got 12 caches for me and 13 for Rick -- we did a couple at the end of the day that we had done without Rick one day ----we did a couple of good hikes early in the  day --t
he walking on the trails with frozen foot prints was not the  easiest and one cache we went too after a good walk was not WF ---- we laughed at that  .... weather was great , a bit slippery going in but I just took my time and we were home by 4 .... looking fwd to next week with all of us --- have a good night ................ Chris

Valley Cachers' Meet & Greet

In my opinion, another successful Valley Cachers' Meet & Greet this evening. A total of 32 cachers representing 21 teams signed the log book and I believe that 6 of those cachers were first time attendees. BP also got it right tonight, having extra servers working for our enjoyment! And rick o brought presents - thanks, Rick!

We missed you, Brian, and hope that all is going well with you and the family!

Ken

Friday

Vic and I had 9 new caches published today on a section of R2T we are developeing. We were out this afternoon putting out 14 more caches on the same trail when the emails started coming in from cachers finding our newly published ones. Passed one cacher on the way out from finding our caches as we were going in to hide more, kind of neat.
When we were getting ready to go hide our caches notifaction came in about 4 new caches from Blackrattle. We had to decide wether to hide or find and we chose hiding.
Caching tomorrow with Chris in Bridgewater while Rhonda & Vickie attend a beading course, looking forward to it.

Souviners

Hey last week they sent me a souvenir from Portugal because I did caches over there and tonight I get one from Ontario because of caches there so now I have 3 .... Chris

Hiding caches

Vic & I were out hiding caches this morning, beautiful morning for mid Jan. We put out 4 P&Gs around Brooklyn and then headed to the RTT to start putting more out only to discover they are cutting bushes on a large section of the trail. We couldn't do the first part of the trail so we went in about a mile and started there. We got about half way through this section of trail and put out another 7 caches until we reached an older cache of mine. I will have to go back in a couple of days and do the first part of the trail and when i get more containers ready will do the rest of the trail. A great day topped of with supper and a movie in Bridgewater.

Monday January 10th

Sunday morning I check my e-mails and see a number of new caches posted but not really in the mood , then a mail from Rick 0 --10 new caches lets go get em ??? I was still not in the mood so said not today --glad that I said that as 2 hours later it was snowing a lot here --
So last night I sent Rick a note lets go Monday ...  I picked him up at 9 am -- we thought 10 easy find s, mostly FTf and home by noon --- hahahha ...these caches were well done --- some one beat us to 8 of them but we did get 2 FTF ---- it was almost 2 pm by the time we finished --- snow banks and all were at least 100+ m in the woods --- but it was an awesome day weather wise and we were both were in top form so we had fun .... Rick had an egale eye today for sure ...then coffee at Crib Doners house then home by 4pm --- longer day than we thought but it was a fun one .... so that was it for the Hantsport boys today

Friday 10th

My Friday didn't go as planned. I had to wait around in the morning for Eastlink to show up, you know what they are like for appointments, anywhere from 8-12. I had 16 new cache containers all ready to go and just as soon a Eastlink left i was going to head out and place the caches in places i already had scouted out.
Around mid morning my Mother -In-Law called and wanted to know if i could drive her to Lunenburg in the afternoon for an appointment. It had been snowing all morning and she was afraid the roads might be slippery. There went my cache hiding plans.
I have been chosen to look after her parents for things like this now that i am retired, but i don't mind and actually enjoy helping them out. I figure that this is one of the things that this time of your life is for, both of my parents are gone so i have adopted Vic's. They are very thankful for the help (Vic's mom is 75 and her dad 78) and i am getting along with them better than i ever have. Now to find another day to hid my caches.

Jaqnuary 7, 2011

hey had to go to my sons today in Porter's lake and Rick came with me --- he was having a TV delivered and window was between 10 am  and 2 pm. So we left home around 8 am and stopped at a cache just before John's house. I did it a few months ago so it was gonna be an easy start to the day ........   You guessed it cache was gone ....MIA .. so we went to John's place and waited -- 11 30 am --TV show up but it has snowed while we waited and there is about 1 cm of wet snow over everything -- made it a messy  wet day to cache but we started out --- 1st cache was a quickie --then we hit next 3 three  and either they were gone after a lotta looking or we decided too far to walk so stopped looking ..... then we hit a good one --then 2 more no finds or to wet or something --then a long long look and Finally we hit "Yahoo" at this one cache and that made us feel better ...then 2 more finds --- then Tim's then home -- 4 hours ---- not our best day but we did enjoy each others company and it was good to get outside ..

January 6th -- Bayers lake

Met the Seeker around 9 45 am to grab a few caches together in Bayer's lake as we were both in the city today . Well the first cache that we do together is on a light pole -- it is on 1 of 6 so at the 1st one I say to B ... stay in the car I will look ... so I look and no cache so off we go and we check all the other 5 --- no cache -- Back to 1st one and both get out to check and sure enough ''The Seeker finds it -- I had my hands on it the first time -- LOL ..what a start to our day ... It was an awesome sunny morning and in two hours we grabbed 7 out of 8 caches  and I think the 8th was MIA ....... It was hard to believe that we were so close to all those stores but it seemed like we were in the middle of no where --
Great Morning --thanks Seeker ........................

GC2JE2F - How Do I Solve all of these Puzzle Caches?

So, at 11:45 last night (while I was watching NHL hockey, of course) I see a new puzzle cache has been published. GC2JE2F - How Do I Solve all of these Puzzle Caches? is supposedly a tutorial on how to solve puzzles and is 14 puzzles in one, one for each number in the coordinates. That isn't totally true, there are several numbers that are actually identical solves.

We all know how much I enjoy trying to solve puzzles. So, when I got up this morning I started to solve the coordinates. Before I knew what was happening, I had all but three numbers solved. For time's sake, I took an educated guess at the other three. It came back incorrect. I changed one number and had the correct solve!

Around noon we headed out - Jan with her book to read while I beat around in the bush.

We arrived at the parking coordinates and I had a 105 meter walk. In I went. I searched at GZ with no luck and had just begun to expand the circle of my search when I heard somebody coming down the trail. It was Pam Grant-Murray, the Valley part of team Fundy & Valley. We searched together for probably 35 or 40 minutes and we were both about to call it when I saw one more spot I wanted to check. As I walked towards that spot I had my head down to watch my footing - there is snow in the woods and I am, after all, a clumsy old guy! I saw what looked to be the cover of a 35 mm film canister. I called Pam over and we cursed and blessed Leona together because the cache listing said it was a regular size container, not a micro. (I think there is also an error in the puzzle, but it is obviously solvable.) I had to pry the container out, it was frozen in, and we found a blank log. Co-FTF! YAHOO!!!!!!!!

As an aside, Leona has changed her caching name. She is now 4CeasonS (think four seasons).

Cache on, cache safely,

Ken

An Earthcache on Highway 101?!?!

Well, I've probably driven right by it hundreds of times, but today I grabbed an earthcache on the side of Highway 101.

It all started out with the need for a warmer winter coat for Winnipeg next week, so we took a flying trip to the Mecca of bargain shoppers in Nova Scotia, the Sears Bargain Basement. I scored a $149.00 coat, extremely warm, for $80.00.

But before we left home I ran a PQ for caches along a route, the 101 from Kentville to Halifax. Lo and behold, there is an earthcache jumping off the screen at me. GC11WHZ -Cobequid Chedabucto Fault. (Mind you, I have since done a little research and I'm not so sure it is a good example of the fault line, but I'm probably wrong.) So we stopped on the way home and I fulfilled the requirements - I hope. I haven't heard back from the CO yet to approve my answers.

That is my first find for 2011. It's January 4, friggin' near time I grabbed a cache! I only need 764 more this year to meet my goal of at lest one more find than than last year!

Cache on, cache safely!

Ken

Great Hike

Had a great hike today, 4 miles (6.4 Kms) on old hauling roads and trails. I wasn't looking for caches but i was scouting locations to place caches. I love hiking in the cold weather, the air seems so much fresher. I marked spots for 8 caches on the trail and i already have 3 in the area to tie the trail together. I plan to expand this trial over time to cover 20 miles or more and probably at least 50 or 60 caches.
I also marked locations for 10 caches around Brooklyn. Now i have to get the containers ready and then place them. I seem to place most of my caches in the winter.

January 1/2011

Yesterday as I was closing up the computer a listing for a cache in Halifax came up that it was put back in action that day. It was on Veith Street so I loaded it into the GPS and today I told Rhonda just one cache on the way home to start the new year ---YUP I got er ... Happy New Year Guys !!!!!