We finally got some snow today. It wasn’t very much (3 or 4 inches), but it was enough to cancel school for Beth. I slept in and then did some work from home (but only managed to pull off half a day – the other half is vacation).
Penny takes a break
I took Penny down to Sandogardy Pond. I also brought my camera, a one-inch chisel, a claw hammer, and a geocache I intend to hide in a dead pine tree along the banks of the creek that drains the pond. I have written about this cache before.
I have been doing a bit of research about Little Cohas, the Abenaki man who lived near the mouth of this creek. Cohas means “small pine tree.” I believe that “Sandogardy” also derives from Abenaki – “Sandagaji” means something like “next Sunday,” as best I can tell.
So what was the chisel and hammer for? I found a large, dead pine tree with a lot of holes in the trunk. My plan was to enlarge one of them so that it could accommodate the cache container:
Ta-da!
Part two of the plan was to break off a sheet of bark and nail it over this hole to conceal the cache. I did manage to dislodge a large enough sheet from the tree, but when I put the nail through it, it broke into four pieces. So I put the pieces in my coat pocket and took them home. They have since been glued to a piece of mason board. I drilled a hole in the top of the cache “door” and put a nail through it. The other end of the nail will go into the tree just above the cache hole. It should be easy to rotate it out of the way and reveal the cache.
This will be a puzzle cache. The coordinates are written in the Abenaki language, so people will have to do a little digging to find it. Don’t tell anyone!
Jomegat's Weblog 
January 12, 2012 at 10:53 pm
Love the cache idea….When I get up to your neck of the woods, will have to put the geocache on my “Must Do” list. I don’t do well with puzzle caches…but will have to intentionally prep for this one.
Nice hide.
January 12, 2012 at 10:57 pm
I’ll send you a link to the cache once it goes live. The one thing I forgot to bring with me today was my GPS. So I don’t know the exact coordinates yet. I also need to put a cache notice in the container, mount the door, and maybe figure out how to add a geochecker to the cache description.
January 12, 2012 at 11:47 pm
Terrific idea for the cache!
January 13, 2012 at 12:06 am
Thanks Terry. I left it in the cavity and covered it with a too-small chunk of bark. It’s pretty well hidden that way, but a stiff wind would probably “blow” its cover.
January 13, 2012 at 4:39 am
Enjoy the photo of Penny. It appears she has her own cached of sticks to be thrown.
January 13, 2012 at 7:16 am
Yup! One of those is for her, and one of them is for me. I don’t know why she insists on carrying one around in her mouth when she “works” but she most certainly does. And it’s usually the best one.
January 13, 2012 at 5:59 pm
You are fantastic. Is it Like a letter in a bottle? wow.. c
January 13, 2012 at 6:11 pm
It’s a lot like a letter in a bottle, but most people who geocache liken it to a treasure hunt. But here, the treasure is in the hunting (and the finding). There are probably 500 geocaches within 10 miles of my house. Caches just like those have been hidden all over the world. See http://www.geocaching.com for more info, but watch out – it’s easy to get addicted.
January 14, 2012 at 8:20 am
[…] Jomegats […]
January 15, 2012 at 1:01 pm
Excellent idea, very nice cache !
January 15, 2012 at 1:52 pm
Thank you. I was not able to wait for snow to cover my tracks and submitted it last night. It has not yet been activated, but that takes time.
January 15, 2012 at 11:09 pm
This sounds fun.
I wonder if learning a tongue native to the area will show the landscape through a different lens.
January 15, 2012 at 11:14 pm
It would almost have to. Instead of dividing nouns by gender, the Abenaki classified them by animate vs inanimate. The animate nouns required reverence & respect. They had three sets of numbers, depending on whether they were numbering animate objects, inanimate objects, or neither (such as actions).