Hello to all curent and new members to this group. i hope your holiday season was joyus. for 2010 i hope we all can remain safe and continue to educate ourselves. i am a big believer in networking. i'd like to start off the year by asking memberts to post any "ten cent" ideas thay may have that they think would be helpful to the investigator. i will start it off

i carry a garden hoe that has a fiberglass handle. i cut the blade down to a width of about 4 inches. i use it to poke around and since the handle was fiberglass, i didnt have to worry about electrical shocks. i had a second one with a shorter handle for tight spaces

i have a collapsable surveyors tape (six foot) that rolls into a holder like a measuring tape. it has black backround with white one inch numbers on one side and red and white on the other. you cant miss the one inch numbers in a photograph

Radio shack sells a field microscope for a few bucks thats handy. i have their old one that is larger and is 100x power.