Hobby Thread - October 24, 2026 [TRex]

Welcome hobbyists! Pull up a chair and sit a spell with the Horde in this little corner of the interweb. This is the mighty, mighty officially sanctioned Ace of Spades Hobby Thread. For this week, the Wheel of Hobbies (TM) is feeling adventurous and decided on a geocaching theme for this Hobby Thread.

Geocaching? What is that? Read on, fellow hobbyists...

Geocaching is an outdoor treasure-hunting game that uses GPS. Players hide small waterproof containers (called caches) in public places and post the coordinates online.

Other players use a smartphone app or GPS device to find them. Each cache usually holds a logbook and sometimes small trinkets. When you find one, you sign the log, trade an item if you want for equal or greater value, and record the find online. You can also hide your own caches for others to discover.

The hobby combines hiking, problem-solving, and exploration. Caches range from easy urban spots to challenging mountain trails. Some are tiny and hard to spot. Others are larger and easier to find. It takes participants to places they ordinarily wouldn't go and incorporates the challenge of figuring out where the treasure would be stored.

As far as I know, there are no costs involved other than access to a phone or GPS, access to the internet, and the ability to travel outdoors. The global nature of the hobby means you can do it almost anywhere. Like any other hobby, I presume there are casual participants and more enthusiastic and dedicated participants.

The locations are one thing but the containers themselves are another. Some containers are basic weather tight plastic containers or ammo box type containers. They are easy to identify. Others are more difficult to spot, are disguised or are hidden inside fences or trees.

Are any among the Horde geocachers? If not now, have you done it or tried it in the past? If so, please share. Interested in hearing about your adventures, interesting places you found a cache and unexpected hiding places.

What kind of items have you found or traded? Was geocaching a great hobby with friends or kids? Does anyone host a cache on their property or hide/place caches?

Anyone have recommendations about online websites or apps that are good for geocachers?

The content may not be your favorite but give it a chance before you judge and bail out. More importantly, what are you hobbying? Jump in with your hobbying, interests, stories and questions.

Anything (legal) you are hobbying is welcome. If nothing resonates, offer something else relating to hobbying or just check in and say hello.

As per usual Hobby Thread etiquette, keep this thread limited to hobbying. Leave politics and religion to threads elsewhere (unless your hobby is building or restoring churches). Pants? Nope. As always, puns are welcome and encouraged.

Play nice and do not be rude. Do not be a troll and do not feed the trolls.

Disclaimer - I had a difficult time finding YouTube videos that don't feel overdramatic. There is a natural inclination/temptation to highlight videos like "you won't believe this crazy hiding place!" or "we went to the most amazing hiding location." There are also people that have strong feelings about how it should be done or not done. The videos in the content below are illustrative but there might be better ones out there. Ace of Spades also does not endorse trespassing or otherwise breaking the laws in pursuit of hidden bounty. Caveat emptor.

The beginning seems like a good place to start:

Seems like good advice for more advanced participants:

Some geocaching items are trackables or travel bugs - they are moved around the world by geocachers and logged in as they go. For example, someone might set up a trinket with a goal of traveling to certain countries or cities. A geocacher finds the trinket, identifies the instruction and carries it with them if they are headed in a direction that can help accomplish the goal. Think of it like a flat stanley type group project.

As if regular caches weren't challenging enough, some caches require solving a puzzle to access the logbook - here's a good example:

In memoriam

You may not know Tom Daniel's name, but you're likely familiar with his work.

Tom's art and model designs affected and entire generation, and many of us have carried it with us throughout our lives as artists and model builders.

Tom was an industrial artist. He did many designs for industry and the automotive world. He also did console designs for NASA back in the 60's.

In the late 60's and early 70's he began designing model vehicles for Monogram Models and later Revell Corporation. Having designed over 70 goofy and wild model kits. He was also a fine art painter, He painted mostly landscapes and railroad art.

Although uncredited he designed the "Munster Coach" and "Dragula" cars for the hit show "The Munsters." George Barris built these cars but they were originally Tom's design.

Not a hobby, but skill that hobbyists would respect:

You had me at "4.5 meter dragon head." Interesting creation process video:

In light of the comments last week about spinning wheels, thought the Horde might be interested in a little cotton content. We snapped these photos in Mississippi en route to the Place for the Thing last week. The cotton harvest was underway!

How does a cotton harvester and baler work? Glad you asked!

Farming terminology nugget: a cotton harvester is not called a combine. The term "combine" is reserved for machines that "combines" reaping, threshing, and cleaning into one machine. It is used mainly for grain crops such as wheat, corn, soybeans, barley, rice, and similar crops. A cotton harvester just strips the cotton off the stalk.

The stores are full of large scale outdoor Christmas decorations. Anyone shopping?

Horde Hobbying: sea glass work by IrishEi -

I finally started doing something with all the sea glass that I've collected over the years. It's relaxing and fun, and believe it or not, people are paying ridiculous amounts of money for the stuff. I don't have the time to go to craft shows or set up an online business, but a neighbor who makes great goat milk soap takes some of my stuff  to local shows and has successfully sold quite a bit for me.

Outstanding! Thank you!

Did you miss the Hobby Thread last week? We did a hobby scrapple (MoMe edition) theme. The comments may be closed, but you can re-live the content.

Notable comments from last week:

Words of wisdom:

"Because despite all our troubles, when things are grim out in that wide round world of ours, that's when it's really important to have a good hobby." Posted by: tankascribe at June 22, 2024 07:41 PM (HWxAD).

Reminder: if you put links in the comments, use a URL shortener and describe what you're linking to. Failing to do either or both makes you barrel-eligible. Don't make people click to find out what you're linking.

Send thoughts, suggestions and photos of your hobbying to moronhobbies at protonmail dot com. Or just email to say hello. Do mighty things.

posted by Open Blogger at 05:30 PM

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