A lot of things are hard right now. But I appreciate that Spring has come and I can enjoy a cheese & pickle sandwich and a fake beer for lunch in the sun. All to the sounds of the birds singing… and, somewhere behind me, the dog excitedly demolishing a pile of pine cones.
It could be worse, right?
This checkin to GC4MJRJ R’n’R #3 – Not Quite A Well? reflects a geocaching.com log entry. See more of Dan's cache logs.
Another quick find for the sharp-eyed geokid, once we found the right host. Three for three and that’s time for us to turn about and go have our brunch. TFTC!
This checkin to GC4MJRT R’n’R #4 – Changing Colours reflects a geocaching.com log entry. See more of Dan's cache logs.
The woods made it hard to get a good fix, but eventually we were in the vicinity of this excellent cache. It took a few different tree hosts before eventually we were looking in the right place. The younger geokid insists that I log that he caught sight of it before me!
This checkin to GC4MJX6 R’n’R #6 – what YOU looking at? reflects a geocaching.com log entry. See more of Dan's cache logs.
Came out for a dog walk from New Yatt this morning. The GZ is deep within thick brambles, but the younger geokid was up to the challenge and soon the unusual cache container was in hand. TFTC!
This checkin to GCAABPG North Leigh Loop #7 reflects a geocaching.com log entry. See more of Dan's cache logs.
Completing our loop (minus a couple of DNFs, but plus a couple of nearby caches), this damp geopup and I were really happy to finish with this good-sized cache!
TFTC, and for the series, if which this was our favourite and so earns the FP.
Now we’d better go get cleaned and dry!
This checkin to GCAABNV North Leigh Loop #5 reflects a geocaching.com log entry. See more of Dan's cache logs.
No sign of this one, despite the geohound and I’s best efforts.
Maybe it washed away if the nearby drainage ditch broke its banks this winter?
This checkin to GC1QY29 Can Rabbits Climb Trees?? reflects a geocaching.com log entry. See more of Dan's cache logs.
Coming up from Evergreen/Loop #4 the geohound and I made a poor guess about which side the the hedgerow we ought to be on, and – to avoid having to backtrack – opted to cut through red thicket just East of this cache. The little pupper got stuck and had to be carried, which was when I discovered that her belly was completely caked in thick mud. Eww!
We got here in the end and were delighted to find such a nice cache. TNLN, SL, and took advantage of the concealment provided by a nearby tree to relieve our bladders before continuing North. (Well I appreciated the concealment; the doggo is happy to widdle anywhere!)
This checkin to GC1QYPN Back to Evergreen reflects a geocaching.com log entry. See more of Dan's cache logs.
The geopup and I are out doing the North Leigh Loop from New Yatt, where we’re temporarily living while our house is dried and damage assessed by the insurance company following a catastrophic flood a few weeks ago.
Between Loop #3 and #4 we took a small diversion to find this cache, and I’m glad that we did! So nice to see a properly-sized (and tenured) cache still rocking it!
Lid was not properly attached by a recent finder, sadly, and the container spilled its contents as I picked it up. But once we’d reassembled it all we were able to sign the log and continue our loop.
TFTC to both the hiders and adopters. FP awarded for being the first decent-sized cache I’ve seen today.
This checkin to GCAABMN North Leigh Loop #3 reflects a geocaching.com log entry. See more of Dan's cache logs.
While the geohound busied herself with the important task of collecting sticks several times larger than herself, I began the search for what I’d figured would be a QEF.
Within the circle of uncertainty lay an obvious-looking host covered with obvious-looking candidate spots into which to squeeze a cache of this kind. After 15 minutes of searching where it “should” have been I wondered, per previous logs, if it might free fallen, and made a brief search of the mulch and leaf litter underfoot. No luck there either! After a total of nearly 20 minutes of searching, we had to give up.
This checkin to GCAABMJ North Leigh Loop #2 reflects a geocaching.com log entry. See more of Dan's cache logs.
Clearly I’ve trained the geohound well, because she found the geotrail out to this GZ before I did!
This cache is definitely benefitting from its layers of defense against the elements: the log, in its inner sanctum, was dry despite moisture getting through all the other layers! TFTC!
This checkin to GCAABME North Leigh Loop #1 reflects a geocaching.com log entry. See more of Dan's cache logs.
Coming to the “start” of this loop having come from the “end” gave the geohound and I a perfect vantage point to sight this QEF. Now it’s time to find out how boggy the trail to #2 is! If it’s as muddy as the one from #8 back to the village then we might need to make an alternative plan!
This checkin to GCB1N17 Square root of E/m reflects a geocaching.com log entry. See more of Dan's cache logs.
QEF for the geohound and I. My GPSr can’t connect to the Internet and I’m not retyping a URL into my phone so I can’t comment on the hint, but the cache itself is fine. SL, TFTC.
This checkin to GC7PC86 North Leigh Number 6 reflects a geocaching.com log entry. See more of Dan's cache logs.
Coming from Leigh Loop 8 the geohound and I figured we had an easy and direct run here, but intolerable mud at the East end of the field path drove us out onto the road and back before we could get to this cache. Even here, conditions were boggy and crossing the path to improve our certainty of our GPS coordinates was a drag! But we found it in the end pretty easily, although its logbook is so wet as to almost be unsignable! TFTC.
This checkin to GCAABQ1 North Leigh Loop #8 reflects a geocaching.com log entry. See more of Dan's cache logs.
Since our house flooded a few weeks ago we’ve been living out of a series of short holiday lets, waiting for the floors to dry out and the insurance company to assess the damage, before we’ll hopefully be able to secure a slightly longer tenancy somewhere while repairs are done.
Right now we’re staying in New Yatt. I’ve cached a little around here before, but never this loop, so this morning the geopup and I came out for a walk and to begin this loop… at its end!
After some initial difficulty getting a GPS fix we eventually found a good looking hiding place. Despite this being the first find out this cache and the terrible recent weather, the cache and its log are in fine condition. SL, TFTC!
It’s now twelve days since a flood struck my house, causing the ground floor to be submerged under a couple of feet of water and ultimately leading us to kick off an insurance claim process.
And man, a home insurance claim seems to be… slow. For instance, we originally couldn’t even get anybody out to visit us until F-day plus 10 (later improved to F-day plus 7). The insurance company can’t promise that they’ll confirm that they’ll “accept liability” (agree to start paying for anything) until possibly as late as F-day plus 17. Nobody will check for structural damage until F-day plus 191.
Oh, and the insurance company have advised us to look for something like a “12 month let with a 6 month break clause”, which is horrifying. We could be out of our home for up to a year.
Some days it feels like being stuck in a nowhere-place… but simultaneously still having to make the regular everyday stuff keep ticking over. Visiting the house- currently stripped of anything damp and full of drying equipment – feels like stepping onto another planet… or like one of those dreams where you’re somewhere familiar except it’s wrong somehow.
But spending time away from it, “as if” on holiday except-not, is weird too: like we’re accepting the ambiguity; leaning-in to limbo. Especially while we’re waiting for the insurance company to do their initial things, it feels like life is both on hold, and not-allowed to be on hold.
And I worry that by the time they’re committed to paying for us to stay somewhere else for at least half a year, they lose any incentive they might have to contract for speed. There’s no hurry any more. We’re expected to just press pause on our home, but carry on with our lives regardless, pretending that everything’s normal.
So yeah, it’s a weird time.
1 I’m totally committed to this way of counting the progress, which I started on F-day plus 3. I get the feeling like it might be a worthwhile way of keeping track of how long all of this takes.
2 Normally, the younger and older child are able to get to school on foot or via a bus that stops virtually outside our house, each day, so an hour-plus round-trip to their schools and back up to twice a day is a bit of a drag! We’re managing to make it work with a little creativity, but I wouldn’t want to make it a long-term plan!
3 And do some work from there, amidst the jet engine-like noise of the dehumidifiers!