gps – Grave Care Business

Kilauea Volcano Affects Hawaiian Cemeteries

If you are fascinated with cemeteries as I am, you might consider starting your own Grave Care Business.

Volcano Reminds Me of the Need For Proper Grave Care and Documentation of Cemeteries

As I read the news this morning, I see the volcano on Hawaii’s biggest island is once again erupting dangerously close to civilization.

I see the pictures and I am reminded of my trip to The Big Island a few years ago to study the cemeteries there. I took particular interest in the cemeteries within the Kalapana region of Hawaii. Those cemeteries were largely affected by previous eruptions of Kilauea. Some cemeteries were covered with 30′ of lava and some grave sites were lost forever. Other cemeteries experienced community outpouring to reestablish the cemetery boundaries and locate individual grave sites.

I saw the destructive process of nature and the possibility that cemeteries, in an instant, might be lost forever. This past trip to study the cemeteries of Hawaii is what really prompted me to take and active interest in using GPS technology to properly document the locations of cemeteries and individual grave sites. Technology has come a long way in the last few years. With cell phone apps like Find-A-Grave and Billion Graves, I am able quickly geo-reference hundreds of grave sites in a day. Also, I now use drone technology to aerial map and make 3-D interactive images of the cemeteries I visit.

So, as I sit here this morning watching Kilauea’s lava, I am reminded of the importance of proper documentation of our country’s cemeteries.

If you are fascinated with cemeteries as I am, you might consider starting your own Grave Care Business. It’s easy to do this as a side-line source of income or to grow it as a full-fledged full-time business.

We have developed a professionally produced Grave Care Business Instruction Course designed to help you start and grow your own grave care business. You can learn more about the course on our main webpage (www.GraveCareBusiness.com). You can order directly through the website and we will ship it out to you promplty.

TILE and GPS – Lost Keys in a Cemetery. Located my keys with TILE and my phone’s GPS

Find your keys with TILE, even in a cemetery

Neat device for your Grave Care Business.

Have you ever misplaced your keys? Recently, when I was working in a local cemetery, I misplaced my keys by leaving them on a tombstone. By the end of the day I had visited dozens of gravesites and my keys were nowhere to be seen. I had to retrace my steps through the cemetery.

There is a company called TILE that make a device to which you can attach your keys. The device uses the cell phone’s Bluetooth and GPS capabilities to help you find your keys should you ever lose them. I have used TILE for a few weeks and I am very pleased with the results…..enough so that I wanted to share the technology with you. While I admit that the technology is not a PERFECT solution, tile is well worth the $25 they are charging for each device.

Below is an Amazon.com associate link where you can purchase your own TILE. If you use it with success, please let us know.

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TILE is just one of the tools we use in our Grave Care Business. IF you have ever thought about starting your own grave care business, we have developed a course that will help you start, grow, and operate your own successful Grave Care Business. Check our main website via the link below:

Grave Care Business Course

GPS for Grave Site and Cemetery Georeferencing

GPS Datalogger for Grave Site and Cemetery Georeferencing as a Business.

If you have read our materials on Starting and Operating Your Own Grave Care Business, you already understand the economic potential of adding a georeferencing component to your business. GPS allows you to geo-tag individual grave sites as well as entire cemeteries.

In addition to georeferencing grave sites a GPS data logger gives you an ability to document your own presence at a particular grave site. This comes in handy should a remote customer ever question your work at their loved-one’s burial site.

We go further into business potentials in our program. The main purpose of this posting is to tell you about one of the most enduring GPS receivers still available today.

Turn-by-turn GPS vs. Hiking GPS

There are many GPS receivers on the market today. These days, when you hear the term GPS, you may think about the GPS many people have in their cars. While turn-by-turn GPS receivers are great for driving instructions, they are not ideal for our purposes here. Hiking GPS receivers are more inline with they type of GPS tool you will need to properly perform your functions.

There are several important functions your GPS must provide to be beneficial to your grave care business.

1) Easy to read, view, and navigate the menu.

2) Ability to set tracks, routes, and waypoints.

3) Compatibility with Google Earth, Other Aerial Programs, and/or Topographical Mapping Software.

We have found one particularly good GPS tool that has lasted us 5 years and helps us everyday in our datalogging tasks.

Garmin Etrex Legend

Our Garmin Etrex Legend has been our workhorse GPS for almost 5 years. We purchased the unit from Best Buy on sale for a little over $140. Though its price has dropped dramatically it’s quality has remained the same (and, through firmware upgrades, improved).

The Etrex Legend is water resistant, has a clear greyscale display, is easy to handle, and is intuitive.

Using a thumb-manipulated joystick and 5 side buttons, the user is able to navigate from screen to screen, set and name waypoints, breadcrumb tracks, and navigate routes.

The Garmin Legend connects to your laptop computer via a peripheral computer cable. Etrex Legend models are compatible with Google Earth which allows uploading of complete data sets ready to be synchronized with photographs or video of your grave care maintenance work.

For more information on how to perform this work, check our main web page: www.GraveCareBusiness.com

For the exact GPS unit we use in our daily work, check the Amazon.com link below. You can purchase it for one of the best prices available on the web.

The adventure pack including an Etrex Legend:

The etrex Legend