Pigeon House Branch – The kudzu shall inherit
by kentwoodkrew

2012-07-05T07:00:00Z
Traditional Cache (2/2)

From Plants, Chapter 12, verses 10-24
10-And the One looked out upon Its works and said unto them, “Go ye into the land and propagate, that all the creatures living therein will know My works.”
11-And among the host there arose a great cry saying, “How shall our issue live among the creatures of the earth?  For they have feet to trample us and beaks to pluck our fruits and mouths ever hungry for our leaves.”
12-And as It gazed down upon them, It said, “By vegetative expansion shall thou grow, by stolons that root at the nodes to form new plants and by rhizomes.”
13-“And also shall you spread by seeds, which are contained in pods and mature in the autumn.”
14-But as It spake, there were those that turned their eye inward and sought pleasure in the beauty of their petals or the loveliness of their attar.  And lo, these among the host heard not Its holy word, but caught only That Last Bit.
15-And the host did depart into the world and did expand vegetatively.  For out of them grew pods.  And out of the pods grew seeds.  And when the pods did mature in the autumn and the seeds fall to the earth, slowly and slowly did the host spread among the corners of the earth.
16-But among them the kudzu had no inner eye and was purest in Its sight.  And the kudzu did reproduce by vegetative expansion and did grow by stolons that root at the nodes to form new plants and by rhizomes. And also it did spread by seeds, which are contained in pods and did mature in the autumn.
17-And so great was the kudzu’s success in carrying out Its word that the others cried, “We are deprived of sun and water and the nourishment of the soil. For the kudzu doth reproduce by vegetative expansion and doth grow by stolons that root at the nodes to form new plants and by rhizomes. And also does it spread by seeds, which are contained in pods and mature in the autumn.”
18-And It was sore vexed at the whiners and the cryers and the nattering nabobs of negativity.  And though it knew that the many could have raised themselves up, It went forth and said unto the kudzu, “Thou art My good and faithful servant yet for the sake of diversity.”
19-“I shall make thine pods rare.  The count of thine seeds shall not be reduced but I shall make but one or two seeds viable for each cluster of pods produced.”
20-And the kudzu cried out for its lost children and said unto itself, “Oh I shall perish. For I shall never produce enough seed to counter the relentless hedge clippers and the evil weed whacker.”  And it was despondent for the loss of its progeny.
21-But the One having very good ears heard the kudzu’s despair and in Its infinite wisdom It spake unto the heavens that although the kudzu’s daughters would be sparse, the hard-coated seeds would be long in germination, yeah even for several years.  And it was.
22-But the kudzu, even unknowing, still went forth by vegetative expansion and did grow by stolons that rooted at the nodes to form new plants and by rhizomes. And also it did spread by seeds, which were contained in pods and did mature in the autumn.
23-And thus it came to pass that after many years did the kudzu see the wisdom of Its decision.  For such was the hardiness of the kudzu’s seed that even after it was thought eradicated at a site the hard-coated daughters of the kudzu would root and grow such that the kudzu would inherit the earth.
24-Amen. (And TFTH!)

Geocache in Space “L.E.I.F.” MMXII Launch Party!
by Genese09, Zinyata, Hudacko, Craig Porter and e6c

Event Cache (1/1)
2012-06-23T07:00:00Z

Oh my dear lord, where do I begin?  The anticipation was sweet and sharp, we filled our bellies with the best barbeque EVER, and helped launch the cache.  We went BACK for more barbeque, good conversation with geocaching pals Pink Dolphin and Wally from Raleigh, then headed out on the chase.  We were quite a bit behind the other chasers so we decided to try and get out in front of them by taking highway 20 down towards St. Paul.  This scheme might have actually worked if a microburst (tornado maybe?) hadn’t brought the balloon down so quickly.  We got to the landing site a bit behind the others and slogged through a quarter mile of thorny tangle before getting close enough to the advance party to get advice on an easier path.  We came out of the forest wet, dirty and scratched (nothing new in that) and had an easy time of it from there as the others had trampled a nice path in to the container.  Along with e6c and a couple of other stragglers, we went in and checked out the landing site.  No one brought a pen (doh!) so we took pictures for posterity and headed out.  Met Bohica NC on the way out as he was retracing steps to find a lost cell phone and got back to the parking area in time for back-patting, interviewing and general “oh dude, did you see that?” chitchatting.  Elvis said it was the best cache he’d ever found and please could we go get some more barbeque?  We had to ask him to settle for a bone and some peanut butter puppy ice cream at home and he reluctantly gave in.  Two hot showers and some after-bite spray later, we all had a nice snuggle and some Pik-n-Pig Brunswick stew.  Infinite thanks to e6c and all the sponsors of LEIF.  We are ready to do it again when e6c has the time and when Mrs. e6c says it’s okay.  P. S. You’re the best “paid escort” ever.  You know who you are!

Tri-County (Harnett-Chatham-Lee)
by wwflover13

Traditional Cache (4/5)
2012-06-08T07:00:00Z

Once upon a space (not a time mind you, time is an illusion and this is real!). So, once upon a space, there was a dimension called “hudackoland” where, of course, there lived “hudackos”.  Hudackoland was very much like your own world except for a slight evolutionary tweak here and there and a few missing laws of physics. The evolutionary changes included a few interesting reversals–birds there were scaly and snakes had beautiful downy plumage, horses were as big as ants and ants were as big as ponies, etc.  Oh, and all the dolphins were a stunning shade of pink.   So one day a very iridescent hudacko said to her friend, a very pink dolphin, “Say, have you heard about the treasure hidden where the kingdoms of Harnetta, Chathamania and Leetho meet along the Cape of Fear River?” “Yes,” exclaimed the dolphin, “but I heard that you had to cross 42 hills to reach it and it’s guarded by dolphin-eating thorn plants!”.  “Nonsense!” cried the hudacko, “We must only pass over the bridge of Euls and through the pawpaw forest then sail from the banks of Slough to the Isle of Caches.”  So the iridescent hudacko and the pink dolphin set off in a little red rocket propelled by the reflections of a philosopher and before long they came to the kingdom of Chathamania.  After inquiring directions from several stalks of corn, they made their way to the palace of King John and Queen Sue.  After speeches and pandering and much pointing at Giggle maps, the gracious monarchs mounted their snow white comet and zoomed ahead to lead the colorful wanderers toward their goal.  But kindly Queen Sue said, “We cannot cross the space-time boundary of our kingdom,” and King John said, “Take the left road for it will lead you to a secret path around many obstacles–particularly the outbreak of psoriasis!”  And so we traveled the left path and when the path became too thick with space fronds for the little red rocket to carry us further, we donned our space suits and sprayed ourselves with cosmic mosquito repellant and proceeded on foot.  The rest of what happened on that fateful journey will be available in my forthcoming book “Hudackoland and Why It’s Where the Cool Kids Hang Out” by Finagle Press.  Available in print, e-Book and babelfish formats.  P. S. Where do I deliver these keys?