Not cache hunting, but cache placing! Im going to plant trees, and need ideas!

[68MUDSTUD]

Not cache hunting, but cache placing! I'm going to plant trees, and need ideas!

Hey guys, first off, I live in the country (15 miles from town both ways), in southeastern Montana. I'm going to be planting about 14-15 trees (oaks, maples, etc). Also, I want to plan my planting around a treasure of sorts! I'm going to build a treasure chest, and I want to bury it chock full of silver and gold. Just to mess with my family after I die.

So, what better way to plan this than from the treasure? That is the best place to start for me. So, should I make an "X" with trees? Or a huge arrow shaped "hedge"? I want to hear what you guys have to say!

 

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[GMD52]

How hard do you want to challenge them? Instead of only a land,direction map to your treasure trove, how about a cypher using the scientific names of the trees.

example: oak=Querus, Maple = Acer, Birch = Betula and so on, these could be used to design a series of clues that would challenge them a little.
On the other hand you could make it easier with just a ground sign. Good luck, it sounds like a good project.

 

[68MUDSTUD]

I like the cypher idea! I want to drive them nuts!

 

[GMD52]

If you would like any further help, I'm a forester. Send a list of the trees and I'll return the scientific names.

 

[68MUDSTUD]

I had a feeling you would ask me. Lol

Baldcypress
Weeping willow
Tuliptree
Thornless honeylocust
Northern red oak
Pin oak
Red maple
Sugar maple
Silver maple
River birch
Forsythias(sp?)

 

[GMD52]

Here you go:

Bald Cyprus: Taxodium distichum
Weeping Willow: Salix pentandra
Tulip Tree: Liriodendron tulipifera
Thornless honeysuckle: Lonicere japonica
N Red Oak: Quercus rubra
Pin oak: Quercus palustris
Red Maple: Acer rubrum
Sugar maple: Acer saccarhum
River birch: Betula nigra
Forsythia: Forsythia suspense

Hope that this is helpful, and that your project is successful

 

[cw0909]

cool idea,good luck with it, oh! and dont forget to delete this info from your puter,or the fam will have a heads up LOL

 

[68MUDSTUD]

Any ideas for building my chest? or Riddles, or how deep to bury it? Hey GMD, any tips for watering, or caring for my trees once I get them planted? I got them from the arbor day foundation, and it tells me how to plant them and everything like that.

Also I still need a cool pattern to plant these in! I'm kind of thinking about planting my stash under my silver maple, then have red maples and sugar maples around it, then my oaks and everything else around them. Come on guys, I need ideas! My trees are going to show up sometime late this month!

 

[mustangpalmer1911]

I would make the scientific names of the trees into pig latin and then into some numerical code they will have to decipher to.

 

[GMD52]

Hey, glad to hear this project is moving forward. When the trees arrive, depending on their size, be sure to keep the roots wet until planting. Air drying of the roots is the worse that can happen. Dig the hole 2-3 times the size of the root ball, if wrapped in burlap cut the ball covering and plant with plenty of compost for nutrients. You should soak the freshly planted trees well upon planting and depending on the weather water once per day. If the trees are only seedling, lust dig the hole the size of the roots, add a little compost,( I have had good luck with the commercial composted cow manure, but if a horse farm is close, that's even better) tamp the soil for support and water.

If the trees are larger, say 6-20 ft. in length you may need to support them with cables to keep them straight and upright, but sounds like your trees will be smaller seedlings, and that makes them easier to care for. Most seedlings are hardened off and hearty, and should do well with just watering once the are planted.

I need to think a little about the clues, and riddles, and will try to come up with some ideas in the next day or so. I'll keep in touch, this really is exciting

 

[tlm5000]

Make a poem out of it like forest fenn did

 

[chinchilla]

I would bury some false caches around placing inside a picture of myself laughing at the camera. the problem is avoiding degradation, maybe inside a block of melted transparent plastic.

I think your project is interesting

 

[Bumpstick]

Use some PVC tubing and glue on the caps. Great for paper money or additional clues. My older brother hates the idea of me burying my coins and Gold. I think we should start a new craze like the Hula Hoop. I am going to start leaving old coins in the Geo-Cash sits and see if it catches on. The coin shop has all kinds in a big box that you can sort through.

 

[FragFox]

If you want to mess with them bury it deep. Like Oak Island deep, around 200' down on bedrock, have a carved piece of wood that says "Thanks for playing, the real treasure you just passed 195' ago."

 

[boogeyman]

I like the cypher idea! I want to drive them nuts!

Really want to mess with em? Do the cypher map, have it lead to a mason jar with another, then another. Add a few gotcha notes in some others around the trees in easy to find places. Double satisfaction! You get to mess with em & find out who's willing to put in the effort to find the big one.

Wanna be a real booger? Get some 1/8" aluminum sheet & cut it into 1/8" x 3" strips and push em in the ground around the area. Add some 4" x 4" pieces too. The relatives will be talking about you for generations to come!!

 

[10claw]

Before you start, be smart. Get a surveyor to come and make a definite spot for you ( where you put the box ) BUT, tell him it is for a specific tree. Get the spot on paper from him, BECAUSE, it is extremely easy to lose anything buried once the grass comes back.
You might also get him to make a couple of other locations to keep his curiosity down.
Good Luck

 

[boogeyman]

Before you start, be smart. Get a surveyor to come and make a definite spot for you ( where you put the box ) BUT, tell him it is for a specific tree. Get the spot on paper from him, BECAUSE, it is extremely easy to lose anything buried once the grass comes back.
You might also get him to make a couple of other locations to keep his curiosity down.
Good Luck

Easier & cheaper & one less person knowing the location. Use your GPS! Then carve the waypoints in a rafter or beam in the house as just numbers. With all the poems etc & the lat/long if they can't find it, I'd be asking St. Peter for some brighter relatives this time around......

 

[audigger53]

Here's the problem with the trees. If you plant too close or under the tree and years go by, the root ball will encircle the chest. and carry it down farther. Better to do it 5 feet away from the tree, due north or magnetic north from the Cache tree. that way it can be recovered without a backhoe and killing the tree.

 

[Rezonate]

My first thought was to plant 26 trees in a circle. Leave a message where they have to string between the trees in order of the letters. Eventually the strings all intersect at a spot above the treasure. You can continue this a few times, if your spot reveals another key word, requiring another stringing. Of course, they will eventually just dig up everything inside the circle. So your final clue could say "dig up the 'Z' tree" (or whichever letter). You could also leave instructions that your trees form a triangle, with the treasure or next clue at a point *outside* the circle of trees. That way you could bury things at different distances, depending on the size of the triangles. You can form a pretty narrow triangle for something distant, or a wider base for something close-in to the circle.

Let us know (generally) what you come up with.