The Means Of Production

The girls are visiting for a couple of weeks from L-Town. What better way to kick their visit off than some arts and crafts? I dragged them out to a Maker Magic Event over the weekend to make some caches and to see some people (and to conduct some TXGA business, but that’s not important right now). It was being put on appropriately enough by two of our area’s most prolific hiders, one of whom is especially known for his incredibly crafted rocks and consequently annoyingly difficult hides. Multiple stations were set up with different kinds of materials and work going on. There were tools, both manual and electric, available for use. There was a spray paint area for those needing to add a little color to something. And a plethora of cachers were working on things to hide. I myself brought my repair kit (a tackle box with bits and bobs) and a few items I’d been wanting to make something from for a while but hadn’t gotten around to or possessed the tools to work with.

My older daughter began as so many of us did, camo-taping pill bottles. She’s never hidden a cache before, so this was her first experience making them. Of course, she and my younger daughter slipped off to find a cache in the park with a caching buddy of mine. I’m sure the younger daughter was roped into it because it would involve climbing a tree. I saw them all head off to the edge of the park and then caught them as they returned. I never saw the cache myself (there was no need because the Event was my required cache for the day), but I heard all about it. If I find myself back at that park, I may bring in my ladder and go get it, but we’ll cross that bridge when we get there.

One item that I wanted to turn into a cache was a lamp I had gotten from the famous Swedish-themed retailer. I just didn’t know what I was going to do with it. Seeing all the materials around gave me ideas. One person had brought both medical-grade plastic bottles (good for moisture-proofing the lamp interior) and epoxy glue. With a bit of those, and a pill bottle and magnets from my own box, I turned it into a something mostly waterproof, which, once I add a little glow-in-the-dark paint, will look like it’s lit. The other one I wanted to do was a log with a bison tube in it. I had a good log, but not the right bits for the drill. As fate would have it, the master rock maker also brought along drill bits of pretty much every type, so enlarging a hole in the log was child’s play. A little glue to slide in and fix the bison in place, and it was lovely!

One cacher used terrain basing and glue to build gnome house pill bottles. Another cacher built a one-by-one-by-one-and-a-half-foot birdhouse and the backings for some gadget caches. Another cacher made a series of environment-themed caches (one desert, one jungle, one mountain, and others). Things and stuff were made by various people. Of course, we sweated quite a bit thanks to a little heat and a lot of humidity, but it was worth it to come home many containers richer! And soon L-Town will have some new caches from a new hider! That’s the GWB guarantee!*

_{* This guarantee not legally binding in Texas, California, New York, or any state, province, or territory containing a vowel.}