"Caching"

After the group picture we went over to the barn where Dude gave a class on "Caching". He started off by asking us what's the one item people forget when they're caching. It's a shovel to dig up the cache! He said to hide the shovel but put it where critters won't eat the wood.

Put the contents of a cache into separate bags with a string attached listing the contents on a label. Burying the cache vertical is better than horizontal. Determine the goal or reason for that particular cache when you make your list and start assembling things. Plan out what each item is for.

This is John laying on the floor taking a picture of Dude! Ignore him! *ahem*...

Don't add items piecemeal. Get everything together, including the bags and container, and let it sit for 8 or 9 hours in the same room, such as a bedroom, living room, or garage. You want to let the temperature and humidity equalize among all the items before you pack them into the container. Moisture absorbers are a good item to put in, too.

Don't hide everything in and/or around your house. Be prepared to lose your cache. Have several caches, including some easier-to-find caches of less-important stuff. Most people, when they find one of your caches, will think they've found it all and they'll take it and leave.

Ideas for caching include fake plumbing pipes in your basement. Most people know nothing about plumbing, and even some plumbers won't notice pipes that aren't "real". Drain pipes, which have a bigger diameter, are best. Even heat-duct pipes that don't really connect to your furnace can be used for caching.

If you're storing batteries, put them in a glass container so that if they leak, it won't damage anything. Watch out for water tables when you cache, and for creeks and reservoirs. They can rise without warning, and every-so-often flood higher than the usual high water level. Trees are a good place, especially evergreens, for a small cache. People don't look up, in general.

Don't count on a GPS to mark the locations. The batteries could go bad, or the satellites could be down. Make a map and mark the location from 3 directions. Key off of less obvious features. Tell someone where your map is. (Someone you trust, not Ed down at the bar, or whoever!)

Be careful about your surroundings when digging and hiding/burying stuff. People can turn up anywhere at any hour. Have dublicates/copies of important papers in your caches. If the grid goes down it could take 6 months to 3 years to restore it (if ever).

Groove out the top of doors and hide things in the trench, such as ammunition. Drill out the legs of furniture and hide things inside. In older homes you can take up the window sills and hide things under them, inside the wall, then replace the sill. In the dead air space of appliances and under bathtubs there's room for things. You can make a false back under stairs.

The most common place women hide things is in the kitchen; men tend to hide things in the bedroom or garage, and up high. The bathroom is a good place. There's lots of metal there, so it'll be harder for anyone to find your stuff with a metal detector. A blacklight can expose patched places on drywall, even if it's been years and it's been repainted several times, so don't cut a hole in a wall to make a cache.

Near fence posts is a good place to cache. Don't be predictable, though. Most people who bury a backyard cache put them within sight of their bedroom window. It's a psychological thing. They can look out the window when they go to bed and sigh in contentment;, their cache is safe!

If you have a survival retreat don't store all your supplies in it. Cache them in the area, then retrieve them if you have to go there. If you're digging a hole for a cache and have to leave to go get your stuff, stash it somewhere close by when you come back and walk up to your hole without it, to make sure the area is still safe.

Lay a tarp next to where you're digging to catch the dirt and not leave an obvious digging site. Go DEEP, try to get below frost line (to prevent frost heave) and below where rain can wash the dirt off and expose it. The three words are AIRTIGHT, AIRTIGHT, and AIRTIGHT!

Whether to cache water depends on where you are and what your plan is. Don't use things like milk jugs, the plastic is too weak and decomposes. Pop bottles like 2-liter bottles are good, and glass jars. Large plastic barrels can be used but be sure they're "food grade". You can fill pop bottles and hide them all over the place and have a lot of water stored that people don't see or notice (under and behind couches and other furniture, etc.).

It's a waste to spread nails and metal junk around to try and "hide" your cache from metal detectors. They wonder why it's there, rake it away, and scan. You don't need to move your caches, or dig them up to check them. It's okay to stroll by now ant then and glance at it to make sure everything appears okay. Make sure you can access your master list 24/7. Put a map of the area, or any area you might need to go to, in each cache. The Colorado Division of Wildlife has free online courses in map-reading.

Use string and not pacing to mark your spot. Your pace might not always be the same. Some days you might be more tired or have a sore leg, be more anxious and walk faster, or grow old and walk slower. An example would be to cut a string to a 3' length and use that: "4 lengths from the south, 7 lengths from the east, 27 lengths from the north". Something like that.

Have alternative routes and make caches along each one. If you have to bug out and you can't go one direction, you'll have a back-up route (or 2 or 3) with supplies cached along them. If you have a trailer or small cabin at your BOL (bug-out location), you could buy some of that ugly "government green" paint and paint it. Use your computer and make up a phony "government" seal or emblem, and put it on the door. Maybe add warnings about radiation or chemicals.