The Orange Cemetery Kit

Copyright 2012, CABS for Reflections From the Fence

Back in early July (2012) several researching/genealogy bloggers over at Google Plus were discussing our "cemetery kits".  What items did we feel necessary, helpful, must haves when we went out cemetery stomping.  We had a delightful discussion and at the end of it, Leslie Lawson of Genealogy and Other Thoughts compiled all of our ideas and wrote a post, where she showed off her orange bucket of cemetery cleaning tools and her kit.  It is a great kit!

But, I needed something much more simple and much smaller so I could carry it in Tana or Jolly and have it all in one place.  Because we spend many months in Tana I keep a very small cemetery stomping kit.  I had a knife and a brush in Jolly and the rest of my small, very small arsenal was in Tana in a drawer in the top of the closet over the washer/dryer.  I tend to forget to take any of it with me, well, cause, I have to dig it out of the closet.  However, if I have it stashed in Jolly, ya, there is a thought, I will have it on hand when it is needed.  We actually found a little hidey hole in Jolly the other day while cleaning.  That was a start - -

I really liked the idea of something orange.  (That said it needs to be a much brighter orange than Blogger gives me to choose from in the font colors, eh?  LOL)  The theory, is of course, if it is orange and you set it down, and wander away, you can still see it fairly easily, just as Leslie has pointed out in her post.

We checked at one of the box hardware stores, and I came home with a small tool bag, but, it was black.  Black is NOT orange, the size was small(ish),  maybe still a bit large for my small collection of tools, but, it folded up flat, so, we purchased, and brought it home for consideration.

Not totally happy with the black bag, we checked several other stores as we ran errands.  We were in a serious case of FAIL, nothing orange, or too small or too large.  Finally we found something, VERY VERY orange and Man announced it the perfect size.  It is a school lunch box.  Yea, seriously, a school lunch box.

Below, opened.  I have crayons for rubbings, of course, paper will not fit in a kit.  LOL  I have scissors, a sharp knife (reason to like this lunch box, that hard plastic liner which will keep the knife from cutting through the soft sides), small spray bottle (which I can refill with water from our drinking water bottles), and two brushes to gently clean off the mud daubers and lichen.

And, yep, I can see the orange, I set it out in the yard, about 50 feet away and shot:

Then, I set Sony to a bit of zoom:

Yes indeed, I can see that orange from a long ways off!  Just like I wanted.  So, unless I find something more appropriate in the next few weeks, the orange lunch box will be my new cemetery stomping kit.

I am looking at methods to get a longer handle on this thing, maybe carry it over my shoulder.  Hmmmmmm - - - -

No, my cemetery stomping kit is not nearly as all encompassing as many of my friends, however, if I need more tools I will either go get them and come back, or make do the best I can.  I accept that there will be times that I will fail, that my compact cemetery stomping kit just won't do the trick.  I can live with that.

Man will now house his small collection of tools that he carries IN Jolly in my first purchase.  Well, at least I did not have to return it!  LOL




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