2012 Happenings

7 Jan. '12 - Welcome to the New Year.  It has been an interesting one for us already.  Chuck and I took a trip on the Amtrak train to go visit his mom in Colorado.  While we were there we visited with Chris Moon and his parents, Paulette and Dennis.  They showed us the more haunted locations in Denver.  At the Molly Brown house I picked up on a woman in one of the bedrooms.  She was hovering around an antique sewing machine but I did not get a name.  In another building I picked up on a woman named Jasmine who said she'd been 'bushwhacked', and she did not want us to go into the house because of the "bad men".    In another building, I picked up on a boy named Bryan who liked to play with his ball made out of leather strips that had been sewn together.  He liked to roll the ball down the grand staircase.  He wanted me to stay and play with him but we were on a time schedule and had to go.  The Basilica church was tremendous and full of energy.  I could not stay long because it was overwhelming.  While in the church, I saw a figure that looked like a monk standing in the organ loft looking at us, then he disappeared.   Days later, when Chuck and I were back in Denver to return our rental car, we had a few hours to kill so we went back to the Molly Brown house, but it was closed on Mondays.  But in the back of the house, I sensed a person on the third floor looking out the window.   Then a man's voice said "No callers today".  I asked if Mrs. Brown was home and he said, "No, the Missus isn't home.   No callers today."  We asked what his name was and he said it was Jacobs.  We asked about the woman with the sewing machine and he got huffy and left.  As we were walking back to the car, we passed the kitchen window and I picked up on a young woman who said her name was Millie and she was the cook's assistant.  She had seen us when we took a tour of the house and I had commented on how nice her kitchen was and she was pleased that I liked it.  We asked if she likes Mrs. Brown and she said she likes the Missus but not the Mister.  Apparently the Mister pays her too much attention and she is afraid the Missus will dismiss her.  So she tries to stay out of the Mister's reach.  When we asked about the woman with the sewing machine, I got "Ada, Adelaide, Ada", and that she is fascinated with the sewing machine.  Thank you, Paulette, Dennis, and Chris for the tour and hospitality!      While we were on vacation, my daughter and son-in-law, Cindi and Hans, took care of the guests at the Inn.  They said it was quiet, ghost-wise.  I guess we took Harold and the gang with us.  Sorry.  The guests did report that they had a ball that lit up at the slightest touch and at one point during the night, the ball lit up for no reason they could determine.  I guess atleast one child must have stayed behind.

9 Jan '12 - We had a ghost hunting group here this past weekend.  I did not know if they would get much since it has been so quiet here lately.  But they got out their divining rods and talked to Anna who said Harold was not here but Curtis and Markie are.  She said they did go to Disneyland, like they had been invited to do,  and Harold rode the rides but she did not.  They had a K2 meter on the table next to an EMF meter and both of the meters went off at the same time several times during the night.  On Friday night, the lady sleeping in the big bed in Room 7 said that at about 2am, she felt the bed go down on the far side.  At first she thought her daughter, who was sleeping in the twin bed, had decided to join her in the big bed, so she looked.  But instead of her daughter, she saw the back of a man wearing a brown coat, sitting on the side of the bed.  Then he got up and walked through the wall.  (Which is historically correct since there used to be a door there until the rooms were combined and the doorways were moved.)  On Saturday the group of women went to another building in town, and as they were unlocking the locked door, they heard men talking inside the building.  But upon entering the building, the men stopped talking.  The group looked around and there were no men to be found.  In the evening, the group did some EVP work in the parlor and one woman went up to Room 5 to do hers by herself.  She was sitting on the twin bed by the door, in the dark, when she felt the bed go down slightly beside her.  She asked if it was Anna, and on the recorder, right after her question, is a whisper of a girl saying "Anna".  Right after that, I was rounding up the cats to put them in my room so they did not wander the house at night making false readings.  And I had all of them except Misty, and I was looking for her when I went into the dining room and I saw a dark grey, cat shaped object run under one of the tables.  I looked, expecting to see Misty, but there was nothing there.  I then found Misty outside and put her in my room with the rest of the cats.  It must have been Josephine who ran under the table because all the rest of the cats were accounted for.  On Saturday night, one of the women, sleeping on her stomach in the twin bed by the wall  in Room 5, felt a weight pressing down on her back.  She said it felt like a cat had jumped on the bed and curled up on her back.  She does not like cats and she started screaming to get it off of her.  The other woman, sleeping in the twin bed by the door, woke up to see a dark grey something streak out from under her bed and out the closed door.  She said it was low to the ground and about the size of a cat.  Poor Josephine!  It must have scared her badly.

16 Jan. '12 - A few little things have happened lately.  During the night on Friday, the lady staying in Room 7 said she woke up sensing somebody in the room with her.  She saw a woman with amber colored eyes and honey blond hair standing next to the bed.  The woman bent down and kissed her on the forehead then disappeared.  She said it was very motherly, not scary but definitely weird.  On Saturday morning, Chuck heard his name called when he was in the kitchen.  I was in the office on the computer and it was not me calling for him.  None of the guests were up yet.  Yeah!  I'm glad he finally got to experience it.  In the dining room, Sunday night, I heard music playing, coming from the parlor area.  It sounded very faint and far away.  But there is nothing in the parlor playing music.  I could not hear it in the parlor or in the hallway, just in the dining room....coming from the parlor area.  Chuck said he could not hear any music.  The guests staying in Room 8 on Friday and Saturday night had stayed out playing cards with their friends in Room 3 until a little after 1am.  When they returned to Room 8, their alarm clock was buzzing, but it was set to the OFF position.  They had to turn it on to turn it off.  The time usually defaults to midnight if the alarm clock is unplugged or the electricity turns off.  But it only beeps 30 times then quits.  This was still beeping an hour later.  On Saturday night, the same couple returned to their room a little after midnight.  They did not hear the alarm clock beeping and they commented on it.  Just as they put their key in the door lock, the alarm started beeping.  Again it was set to OFF.  They checked the alarm time, since it was after midnight, and the alarm was set to beep at 12:05am.  The exact time they entered the room.  Weird.  So last night, Chuck and I brought the alarm clock down and plugged it in the hallway outside our room (Room 1) to see if it would beep at midnight.  We put our EMF meter out there too.  The alarm clock did not beep at all.  The EMF meter did trigger at about 1:30am.  At about 2:30am, I heard a loud "JOY!" in my ear which woke me from a sound sleep.  I thought Chuck was trying to tell me that the alarm clock was beeping, but it wasn't and Chuck was fast asleep.  Who shouted in my ear?  Then, this afternoon, Chuck was working in the dining room and he heard the music coming from the parlor.  He said it sounded very far away.  But nobody is here with the two of us and there is no music outside or in any other room.

1 Feb. '12 - I have been finding pennies here and there lately.  This morning when I went into Room 7 to make the bed, I found a penny on the floor in a very obvious place.  I know it was not there when I stripped the bed yesterday.  In the last few days I have found a penny in Room 5 on the floor by the wood stove, one on the stairs and one in the hallway outside Room 8.  I wonder what finding pennies means.  A guest and friend of ours, Darcie, who stays here often, said she saw a Civil War soldier one night.  She drew a picture of him.  She says it is Harold.  Wow!  We will hang the picture in the hallway upstairs so everybody can say hi to Harold.

7 Feb. '12 - A few little things have happened lately.  Last Thursday, about 5am, I heard boot steps in the foyer hallway.  They went from the front door to the dining room, right past Room 1 where we are staying.  They were quite loud, which is why it woke me.  My first thought was that Jinni was up already and wearing her snow boots.  But when I saw that it was only 5am, I knew it was not Jinni.  Right after the boots there was the sound of a snare drum tapping a rhythm, but it was outside and very far away.  It was very quick and then over.  I think it was Harold tromping through, loudly, so I'd know he was home.  Saturday night, Chuck and I heard sounds in our room so we turned on the EMF meter and about midnight, it beeped several times.  We tried to get it to answer yes and no questions, but it did not seem to beep in response to our questions.  Must not have been an intelligent spirit, just someone passing through.  Then, last night, about 11:30pm, I heard a woman or girl in the foyer hallway, right outside our door.  She said something and giggled.  I did not understand what she said.  It wasn't Jinni's voice and we had no guests in the Main House.  I think they are getting excited about Chris Moon's visit here in two weeks.

15 Feb. '12 - Chuck saw Josephine on Tuesday.  We were cleaning rooms upstairs and he was in Room 4.  He heard a noise outside the door and looked and saw a gray cat run past the door towards Room 5.  His first thought was that Misty was up there running around but when he looked, the door to Room 5 was closed and he could not find a cat anywhere.  When we finished cleaning, we found all the cats accounted for downstairs or outside.  Yay, he saw Josephine!  Last night, Smokey was in our room and she was looking at the ceiling and she looked like she could see something zinging around the room.  So we turned on the EMF meter before going to bed.  During the night the meter beeped several times.  Just as I was falling asleep, about 2AM, it beeped one final time and the new battery died.  During the night I heard a knocking sound like somebody was at the front door.....but it was very faint and far away sounding.  Then the door bell sounds started.  Ding-Dong.  But we have replaced the doorbell we had that sounded like that, so I knew it was Harold messing with me.  Needless to say, between the ding-donging, beeping, and knocking, I did not get much sleep last night.

20 Feb. '12 - We had a fantastic GHU this past weekend.  Lots of activity in the rooms.  There was tapping sounds in Rooms 4 and 5.  Children running sounds in the back hallway of Rooms 2 and 3.  Walking around sounds in Room 7 and the woman had her hair played with also.  The screen door on Room 3, where Chris and Paulette were staying, clicked and swung open.  Chris thought somebody was going to come in but nobody did.  When he looked the screen door was swinging back and forth, but nobody was there.  In Room 5 on Sunday night, the people in there were taking random shots around the rooms and got lots of orbs all over the place.  They got what looks like glowing green eyes under the bed, so the woman got down on the floor and was saying "Here kitty" and the green lights got closer to her hand.    

We think this is Josephine, the ghost cat.  It looks like two eyes, and there is a third light where a tail would be in the second picture, the eye lights have merged into one light but the tail light is still there.  Maybe a second cat following?  In Room 6, on Sunday night, the lady in the big bed said it felt like a dog had jumped onto the bed and leaned up against her.  Maybe it was Purdy.  During the Telephone to the Dead sessions, we did not do any crossings.  Harold said they had figured out how do to it without us and that we should not bring it up again.  He said he had a surprise for us and then we found ourselves talking to President Lincoln!  Remember those pennies I kept finding?  Was that a hint?  It was thrilling to talk to him.  We also found out that the large green orb over my head at Christmas was Tyler.    To read the TttD transcripts, click here.   For Christmas I got a Xoom tablet with a camera feature.  The fun thing is that I can see orbs on the screen as they fly around the room.  But by the time I touch the button, and it focuses, and thinks about it, and finally takes the picture, the orb is past.  So during one of the TttD sessions, I was just scanning for orbs and not touching the screen at all.  Then the Xoom took a picture by itself!  My fingers were no where near the button.  People sitting near me watching too also commented that I never touched it.  After the session, I looked at the picture it took and this is it.  You can see a light mist going across the woman on the left.  It goes from bottom to top, getting wider at the top.  Apparently the Xoom screen is so sensitive, it sensed the pressure change in the room enough to interpret it as being touched, and it took the picture.  Very interesting!

28 Feb. '12 - A couple of fun things have happened lately.  Last Friday, Chuck and I were in the downstairs laundry room and I heard several children laughing and talking.  My first thought was that a school bus was in town.  But when I looked, there was no bus, no cars, nobody around.  There have been lots of footsteps up in Room 6 and out in the foyer lately.  Almost nightly.  And the most weird thing was, you know that I keep hearing a doorbell ring when we don't have a doorbell that sounds like that.  Well, now it's the phone ringing.  Chuck and I were in Room 1 this afternoon and I heard the phone ring, way far away like we had left it in the dining room.  But then it really did ring and it was in the bedroom with us.  Great, now Harold is making phone ringing sounds.

1 Mar. '12 - We came across this photo of General James Ford.  He is a spirit here.  We found out that Ford County in Kansas is named for him and the Historical Society had this picture of him. 

    Yesterday afternoon, I was in the office working on the computer when I heard the doorbell sound that Harold makes.  Ding-Dong, Ding-Dong.  It was very faint and far away like it was the front doorbell ringing.  But the front doorbell does not sound like that.  So I said "I hear it Harold, but it's too quiet.  Can you make it louder?".   A few minutes later, Ding-Dong, Ding-Dong.  It was louder, like maybe the kitchen doorbell.  But that doorbell does not sound like that either.  So I said "That's better Harold, but not loud enough yet.  Can you make it louder?".   A few minutes later, DING-DONG, DING-DONG!  It was really loud, like right outside the office door.  In fact, it was so loud I actually got up to check the doors to see if somebody was indeed out there ringing the doorbell.  Of course, there was nobody because we don't have a doorbell that sounds like that!  So I said, "You got me, Harold.  Made me look.  Ha Ha."   After that, it was quiet until 4:00 this morning when it started again.  Ding-Dong.  Just one time.  Which is the front doorbell sound, but it was way too quiet.  I said "I hear it Harold, but I'm not getting up to look.  It's too quiet."  Then the phone ringing sound.  Ring, Ring.  Which does sound like our phone, but it was way too quiet to be the real phone which was beside my bed.  Then for the next hour and a half it was doorbell, phone, doorbell, phone.  I pleaded with him to stop but he just changed doorbell sounds to the Westminster Chimes, which is the Keeping Room doorbell sound but I know I can't hear that from the bedroom.  So I did not get any sleep after that.

2 Mar. '12 -  Last night, when Chuck and I had settled into bed, we both felt and heard three loud thumps on the under-side of the mattress.  It felt like somebody had punched or kicked the mattress.  Then, as I was falling asleep, I heard Harold's Ding-Dong noise.  I told him it was too quiet and he needed to make it louder if he wanted me to think it was real.  I fell asleep without hearing any more.  But Chuck said that about 15 minutes after the Ding-Dong, he heard a loud thump on the floor up in Room 6.  Like something heavy had hit the floor.  It was definitely louder.  This morning I was cleaning rooms and I was about to go into Room 1, and I heard a woman talking inside of Room 1.  I assumed that Chuck had the TV on in there.  As I turned the doorknob, I heard the woman say, "Here they come."  I opened the door and saw the TV was not even on.  Nobody was in the room.  Chuck was in the dining room and there were no guests in the house or outside anyplace.  The cats have been unusually active too.  Fluffy and Butterscotch have been chasing something only they can see around the rooms and jumping and batting at the air.  At first I thought they'd found a fly, but I could not see anything.  Must be Harold playing with them again.  This evening, I was watching TV in the dining room and knitting at the same time.  I had the Ghost Radar app going on my Xoom just for fun.  It was not saying anything pertinent until Tiger jumped up on my lap and started chasing the yarn.  Then the app said "pet.....needs.....attention."  That was funny.

4 Mar. '12 - On Friday night, there was a college band group who stayed the night here while they were on their tour.  They played and sang in the parlor and I could see little points of light shooting all around the room.  They wanted a short presentation about the history of the house and the spirits, so Chuck gave a short talk.  I was sitting at the dining table that was closest to the parlor and I could see little dark shadows darting in to look into the dining room and then darting out again.  When the kids went to bed, one of the girls said she opened the door to her room and saw a small bright light zip past her.  One young man said that everytime somebody took a picture of him in Room 5, there was a small orb by his ankle and more tiny orbs around his head.  I think the spirits liked those young people.  Last night, there was a paranormal investigation group here from Newton, Iowa.  I have not heard if they got anything really good, but one girl said that when they were in Room 6, three of the members heard a cat's Meow.  I know for a fact that all our cats were locked away in the Keeping Room downstairs.  So they must have heard Josephine.  They did an EVP session in Room 7 and when they listened to the session they heard the word Aqua.  So they went back in that room and asked why they said Aqua.  Just then the toilet flushed.  Later, the girls asked it to do it again and the toilet flushed again.  I checked the toilet to see if maybe there was some physical explanation for it and could not find any.

13 Mar. '12 - This past weekend we had a ladies' group here.  They had a lot of good energy going.  One lady said she saw a man in a black suit walking through the dining room waving at people.  Like he was saying, don't mind me, go on with your fun.  And she also had a dog jump into bed with her in Room 5.  Another lady kept hearing the name Anna in her head and wondered who Anna was.  They took pictures and got a green orb in three of the pictures.  I think that is Tyler.  (We got a green orb in one of our Christmas pictures and Harold said it was Tyler.)  Last night, the people in Room 7 said they were sitting on the bed talking when they heard something moving on the other side of the room.  They went and looked and found the cookie jar was not in the same place it had been in before.  They moved the cookie jar back into position and it was the same sound they had heard.  The man also reported being poked in the back during the night.  He thought it was his wife, but she was turned the other way and was asleep, so it was not her.  The people in Room 5 heard footsteps in the room.  They had done some EVP recordings and when they asked what the name of the doctor was who had died in the room, it said "He was Gray."  They asked me what the doctor's name was and I told them it was either Dr. Green or Gray.  (It was a color, but I can't remember which one.  Must have been Gray.  He and his wife had boarded in the Inn when it was a boarding house in the 1920s to 1940s.  He died here of diphtheria in the 1940s and his wife left his equipment in the room when she moved out.)

19 Mar. '12 - The ladies group that did a Murder Mystery dinner and game here last weekend had asked the spirits to stay out of their rooms.  Well, they did stay out...but....  The 4 college age girls that stayed in Room 3 were awakened at 2:30 by the voices of a man and a woman arguing in the hallway.  At first the girls thought it was Chuck and me, but then it got quiet and a few seconds later, the voices had moved to the front porch.  Still arguing.  They could not make out what was being said.  They looked outside and could not see anybody even though the voices seemed to be right outside their door.  The ladies in Room 6 were up talking, and about midnight, there was a loud knock on their door.  Thinking it was their friend in Room 7 wanting to join the conversation, they opened the door but nobody was there.  Later they asked their friend and she said she was asleep by then, so it was not her.  All the other ladies said they did not knock on the door.  When Chuck and I went upstairs to clean the rooms, we closed the room doors as we went.  Later, Chuck found Room 8's door open, nobody had been up there.  He closed the door.  That's when he heard a woman call "Hello?".  I was in the laundry room and did not hear it.  Thinking our guests were checking in and looking for us we looked around but there was nobody around  and the front door was locked.

20 Mar. '12 - The people who stayed in Room 5 last night reported that soon after they arrived, about 4pm, they were in the room playing a game on their computer and the lamp on the dresser came on.  They looked at it to make sure it was not on a timer or something and could find no reason for it.  During the night they heard a woman talking in the twin bed area.  They also heard somebody making noise in Room 6 but they were the only people up on the second floor.   After breakfast, they went back to their room to pack and found the dresser lamp on.  They knew it was not on when they went down to breakfast.  Then they went around to look at the other rooms and found Room 8's door open.    They thought it was strange since all the other doors were closed, so they mentioned it.  They closed the door, but when Chuck and I went up to clean, it was open again.  I wonder what is up with Room 8.     Just now, Chuck and I went up to the third floor to get something from storage and as we were going up the stairs we heard a cat's mew.  It sounded like Misty's little squeak that she does.  (Her nickname is 'Squeaky' because of her little squeaky mew.)   Thinking that Misty was up there, we called for her and heard the mew come from the south bedroom where my sewing machine is.  But no cat was in there.  Then it seemed to come from the north bedroom, so we looked in there, no cat.  Then it seemed to come from right on the landing where we were standing, but we could find no cat anywhere.  We checked all the bedrooms on the second floor.  No cat.  We finally found Misty in the dining room.  All the other cats were outside.  Did we just hear Josephine?  Definitely weird.  

21 Mar. '12 - Last night, as our guests, a mother and son,  were checking in, all three of us heard a cat mew, the same sound as before.  The eight year old son said it sounded like a cat was upstairs.  Then we heard it mew from behind the parlor door, then upstairs again.  He wondered if two cats could make the same sound.  We all checked in the parlor and upstairs ......no cat anywhere.  When I went to show them into Room 5, I found the door locked.  This was strange because Chuck and I had cleaned the room earlier and we knew we had not locked it.  As I was getting the spare key, the mother said she heard somebody in the room and the locked rattled.  She thought the door had been unlocked, but it was still locked and I opened it with a key.  Upon entering the room, I saw the twin bed by the door was a bit messier than Chuck and I had left it.  I did not want to frighten the boy so I did not say anything about it.  They probably thought we don't know how to make a bed right.  During the night, the alarm clock rang even though it had not been set.  At breakfast the guests reported hearing footsteps in the room above Room 5, but that is my sewing room and nobody was up there.  It must have been Mary.  When they went back to their room to pack, they found their drink bottles all rearranged on the dresser.  They were thrilled to have had an experience that was weird but not scary.  While the guests were saying their goodbyes in the dining room, we all heard a loud thump from the second floor hallway.  When Chuck and I went up to clean the room, as we approached the landing on the second floor, we both got extremely dizzy.  The air was heavy and it was hard to breathe.  Later, in the hallway by Room 7, I smelled a flowery perfume scent waft past me.  I called to Chuck to come and smell it, the scent had passed.  Later, I smelled it again near Room 6.  But, again, it came and went quickly.  Chuck thinks a vortex opened up on the landing and that was the thump we heard.  Then we walked up the staircase and right into the residual of the vortex and that's why we got dizzy.  I wonder if the woman with the flowery perfume came with the vortex.

22 Mar. '12 - Four teen age girls spent the night in Room 5 and the two mothers stayed in Room 7.  The girls reported that the alarm clock rang at midnight even though it was not set to ring.  They had to turn it on to turn it off.  Since this has been happening so many times with that particular alarm clock, I will take it to my room and see if it happens again.  In Room 7, the woman sleeping in the twin bed by the door felt a presence near her.  She could not see anything but definitely felt something by her head.  Then it moved down to her feet and back up to her head and then went out into the hallway.  At 5am, all six of the guests heard a loud bang noise coming from somewhere inside the house.  Chuck and I, in Room 1, did not hear anything. 

2 April '12 - A group was here ghost hunting this past weekend.  They had some interesting experiences.  One man slept in the twin bed by the wall in Room 5, Julia's bed.  She does not like men in her bed.  The man said it felt like two hands were pressing him into the mattress and he could not move.  Another man, in Room 4, said it felt like somebody kept tickling his toes.  Probably the children.  They have done that before.  Several people heard walking and stomping sounds in the hallway.  They said they got some good EVPs too.  They were thrilled with their experience and want to come back later this year for another investigation.  Chuck and I have moved back to our "stable" room since it has become warm enough in there.  The very first night we were back, I heard someone walking around at the foot of the bed.  Just as if to say "We found you!". :)

8 April '12 - The family that stayed in Room 5 last weekend included a father who was not sure he believed our ghostly stories.  The wife and son had stayed here previously on 21 March, and they had brought the father so he could experience something too.  Although it was not as busy as before, the father did hear what sounded like children playing in the hallway.  At first he thought it was his son playing around on the twin bed, but when he looked, the boy was fast asleep.  He lay awake for a while listening to the children play before falling asleep again.   Now he's not so skeptical.   

      We now have a twin-size sofa bed in Room 8 so that room now sleeps 3 people.  I took some pictures for our web site and saw that the children were interested in what I was doing.  I suggested that somebody try bouncing on the pillow to see how soft it is and in the second picture you can see that the orb from the footboard has now moved over to above the pillow.  I think they like the new addition.  

22 April 2012 - Our friend, Darcie, brought her Paranormal Studies class here last night.  Many people had personal experiences.  Several felt cold spots, some said it felt like a child was sitting on their lap.  One lady had her necklace come unclasped......twice.  The same lady had a laptop computer and she picked it up from one location in her room to move it to the dining room table.  When she went back into her room, there was a penny right in the spot where the computer had been.  She was so surprised!  See?  I continue to find pennies here and there.  (Please don't leave any on purpose.)  The group went out on the bridge and on their way back, the lady at the end of the line heard boot steps behind her.  She passed people up so that she was not last any more, and the man at the end of the line heard the boot steps behind him.  So he ran up to pass people so that he was not last because it was just too eerie to hear somebody behind him.   The lady in Room 7 said she was getting too warm and did not want to open a window because it was raining, so she said she was going to turn on the ceiling fan.  When she reached for the fan pull chain, it moved away from her out of her reach.  So she reached for it again and it moved again.  Back and forth and this way and that, she would reach for it and it moved just so she could not reach it.  She finally told it to stop and it did and she was able to pull the fan chain.   Darcie had this to say about the evening:  We brought down the class for our overnight.  Chuck and Joy Hanson put on a lovely presentation of the natural and paranormal history of the Inn.  We opted to place two K2 meters on each table to monitor during the discussion and one started to show fluctuating readings during the talk.  I requested everyone to set all their cell phones to airplane mode, but the fluctuations continued.  I picked up the device and swept the surrounding area and it detected no anomalous fields in the area.  I set it down on the table and monitored it.  The K2 suddenly began to max out in a pulse form .... once in a series of five blinks, then a series of six blinks, and then a series of seven, consecutively.   We retired to Room 5 for the evening (early morning) about 2am.  One of our class members needed to leave, so we escorted her to the front door.  As a sensitive, she stated that the spirits were reluctant for her to leave.  She gathered her belongings from the dining room and, as she left, the dining room door closed soundly behind her, by itself.  The hinges of the door do not allow for this movement by itself.  I came down to escort her out, and as we stepped out, her necklace promptly became unhooked and fell into her shirt.  She stated "Amanda", the young teen age spirit, had done this twice this weekend.  Upon returning to the room and retiring, random knocks were heard throughout the room.  We'll have lots of evidence to review.  We'll be sure to forward it on to the innkeepers upon review.  As usual, the Mason House did not disappoint.  Always why we bring the classes here.  Thanks, Darcie!    Something else that happened about 2am, was that a loud 'crack' sound was heard in Room 6.  It was so loud that the women in Room 5 heard it too.  It was recorded on a recorder and is very loud.  It sounds like two pieces of wood being clapped together with a SMACK!  When I went into Room 6 to strip the beds, I found a penny on the round lamp table next to the queen bed.  I know it was not there when I dusted on Friday.  I emailed the ladies who had stayed in that room and they both said they did not leave a penny.  One lady said she saw it there when they arrived on Saturday, but did not think anything about it.  More pennies!

2 May 2012 - It sure has been a day for voices!  Jinni is at school, Chuck is at work at Hy-Vee, our guests have not checked in yet, but as I was cleaning rooms on the second floor, I heard somebody call my name like Joooooy.  It sounded like Chuck calling me from the first floor foyer.  Thinking he had come home early, I went and looked, but his car was not outside and nobody was around.  I went back to cleaning and as I passed the staircase, I heard two women talking up in Jinni's room.  Her door was closed and I did not climb up to check, but I made sure the TV was not on and that the front door was locked.  Nobody was around but me.  As I was making the bed in Room 4, I could hear creaking outside the door in the hallway.  Somebody is definitely messing with me today.  Chris Moon will be here this coming weekend for his Ghost Hunter University classes.  We are going to ask Mary about the wallpaper samples and see if she will pick something.  Room 5 needs to be re-wallpapered and we have left samples on the bed to see if she will pick something.  So far she has not.  I guess it's time to ask her.

7 May 2012 - We had an awesome GHU class this past weekend!  Chris has a new machine that has a video screen with it.  We asked each of our residents to show himself or herself on the screen.  Each time we asked, the snow on the screen flashed.  It was fun to hear them talking about getting their picture taken.  Chris said he felt like a photography studio worker.  Next, smile, next....   Darcie filmed it with her HD camera and now we can go through the sessions frame by frame to see if something appeared in that instant flash of light.  We asked Mary about the wallpaper and she picked something, so that's finally decided.  We asked Amanda about going to Prom with Jinni last week.  Amanda said she wore a pink dress and Markie was her date.  He wore his uniform.  During Saturday night, Room 5 had tiny, bright orbs zooming around the room.  During Sunday night, the lady in Room 8 said there was knocking sounds on her wall and footsteps in the hallway outside her door and the doorknob juggled.  But when she looked, there was nobody there.  The people in Room 5 said that one of the window shades jiggled twice for no reason they could find.  When they took a picture of it, there was an orb nearby.  The lady in Room 6 had stayed for three nights and never locked her door the entire time.  But when she went to leave the room on Monday morning, the door was locked.  Darcie was in Room 1 on Saturday night and when she packed her suitcase on Sunday, she found a penny on the bed.  We asked Harold if he left it for Darcie and he said he did but had no reason why.  We asked Mary to choose one of the wall paper samples and she chose a pretty one with gold leaves and tiny pink flowers.  I'm glad that's done.    To read the transcripts, click here.

16 May 2012 - The ladies who stayed in Rooms 5, 6, and 7 last night had lots of activity.  They had asked for the spirits to stay out of their rooms, so all the activity was in the hallway.  The ladies went to bed about midnight and shortly after that they all heard somebody walking around in the hallway.  One lady looked and did not see anybody.  The ladies in Room 7 heard women talking and thought it was their friends, until they heard a man talking too.  There was no men here except Chuck and he was fast asleep by that time.  They said the man did not sound like Chuck anyway.  They also heard children running in the hallway.  One lady in Room 6 heard a knock on the wall beside her bed.  At first she thought it was her friend in the twin bed, but that lady heard it too and said it was not her.  Then they heard a door open and shut inside the room but their door did not move.  Historically there was another door in that room that was covered over when the rooms were adjoined.  Perhaps they heard this former door.

21 May 2012 - The ghost hunting group who rented the whole house on Saturday night were not sure they were going to get any activity since it has been so quiet here lately.  So to liven things up, they played the piano and sang songs and danced.  Boy did they liven things up!  Two of the members said they were touched by unseen hands.  Nobody else in the group was close enough to touch them at the time.  Then the group went upstairs to do some EVP recordings.  In Room 5, during a session, the Doctor's equipment hanging under the shelf started swinging and swaying.  None of the windows were open and the air conditioner was not on at the moment, so it was not caused by moving air.  In Room 6, during a session, the person sitting on the twin bed said it felt like somebody sat down next to her.  Then it got up and sat down again and then got up again.  At one point, the door was closed and it opened but nobody was there.  Another time, it was standing open and it closed and locked by itself.  The lady staying in Room 7 reported that she felt like she got hugged, very lightly.  She said it was strange but not scary.  The group is going to review their EVP recordings and pictures and let us know if they got anything interesting.

30 May 2012 - We received a CD from one of the ghost hunting groups that had investigated here recently.  There was a really cute EVP with a little girl saying "I wanna go in there."  It was so cute.  Thank you!   Here is the link to their site: http://www.rivervalleyparanormal.net/Mason-House-Inn.php     This past weekend was pretty active.  One man reported that his feet were tickled.  He asked for it to happen again and it tickled him again.   The mother of a three year old boy in Room 6 reported that he was playing with an unseen friend.  The boy cannot talk very well yet and could not tell us what he could see.  Children are more open to the spirits than adults are.  A teen age girl in Room 7 had gone up to bed while her parents were downstairs talking to me.  When the parents (who belong to a paranormal research group called MPAT) went up to the room they found the bedroom door closed and locked.  They did not think this was strange until the girl told them she had not closed the door nor locked it.  It must have happened after she fell asleep.  The man in that same room reported seeing a dark shadow moving around in the bathroom.  We asked Curtis on the pendulum if we should be concerned.  He indicated that it was Johnny and he just likes it in there.  (Johnny is an 11 year old spirit boy who likes to play in our bedroom too.  He likes to play with the toys and rattle papers and plastic bags.  Sometimes he taps on the computer keyboard.)  While we were in the dining room doing the pendulum session, the same man saw a column of white mist move from one side of the dining room to the other.  He was the only one facing that direction, so the rest of us did not see it.  But the temperature in the room was definitely colder during the session.  In the morning, the woman in Room 5 reported that a man named Howard had come to her during the night asking for help.  So after breakfast, some of us went up to Room 5 with the pendulum and we talked to Curtis and Markie about Howard.  He wanted to go to the light but he was unsure.  Markie and Chuck finally convinced him to go and he went.  Before and during the session, the air in the room was very heavy and ominous feeling.  At the time that Howard went, the air lighted and the ominous feeling left also.  It was so cool.

3 June 2012 - This past week had a few notable incidences.  On Wednesday night, we had a group of sisters stay here who did not know about the ghosts.  They were not sure they wanted to stay.  I told them that our spirits are respectful and if you don't want any activity in your room, just ask them to stay out and they will.  (Or atleast they will take it into consideration.)  I guess everybody asked them to stay out except the lady in Room 8.  Her alarm clock rang at midnight, even though it had not been turned on.  Then she had a knock on her door, but nobody was there.  She heard somebody walking around in the hallway outside her door at 1am.  She thought it was the other people going to bed, but they were in Room 5 and would not be in the back hallway anyway.  (And when I asked what time they had arrived, they said they were in bed by 11pm. )  She thought it was funny that she alone did not ask them to stay out and she alone had activity.  Thursday morning, I heard four hard knocks on our bedroom door.  I looked at the clock and it was exactly 6am.  I did not answer it.  Thursday night, a woman and her grandson stayed in Room 7 and did some EVPs around the house.  They got a very clear one that said "What's that thing?"  They had put a recorder and some other equipment on the bed in Room 6 and you can hear them talking about where else to put recorders and hear them walking away still talking.  Then a man says "What's that thing?" very close to the recorder.  Like they were checking out the gadgets.  That was funny.  The ladies who were ghost hunting last night did not have as much physical activity as they did the last time they came.  But that's the way it goes sometimes.  That's why we don't guarantee anything.  They did get some good orb pictures, though.  One looks like a cat.  It looks white with gray on it's head.  I wonder if it is Patches, our seventeen year old cat that died about a year ago.  She was white with gray patches on her head and side.  Our cat, Tommy, died just recently.  I wonder if he is going to show up some time too.  He was a big, fluffy orange cat who reached the ripe old age of sixteen.  He did not like to come in the house, something in here made him nervous.  He stayed in the back yard mostly.  Maybe some day somebody will get a large orange orb out there. 

9 June 2012 - Early this morning, I felt a cat jump onto the bed down by my feet.  It took three steps up toward my knee and settled down and purred.  Thinking it was Misty, I reached down to pet her but nothing was there.  It must have been Josephine since it was so heavy.  I looked at the clock and it was 4:30am.  I turned over with my back toward Chuck and tried to go back to sleep.  Just as I was dozing off, Chuck tapped me twice on my shoulder.  I asked him what he wanted but he did not answer.  Then he tapped me again.  I did not answer him.  He did it a third time and I turned over and looked at him.  He was facing the other way, fast asleep.  This morning I asked him if he was tapping me and he said he did not.  Sure did feel like him.

23 June 2012 - I have not written lately because Chuck and I went to Germany for a vacation and to visit our son and his family.  They are stationed at one of the Air Bases over there.  Now that we are back, I need to catch up on what has happened.  Cindi and her family came and took care of the Inn for us and we are so grateful for that.  Cindi has been staying in Room 1 and she said that one night she saw a large yellow orb flying around the room.  She also heard footsteps up in Room 6, but there were no guests up there.  I'm glad she got to hear what Chuck and I have heard when we stay in Room 1 during the winter.  One of the guests that she had during the week said that their covers kept being pulled up over their faces while they slept.  Our guests this weekend, in Room 8, reported that her alarm clock rang at midnight when it had not been set.  Also, she had not locked her bedroom door so her sister could get in, but when the sister arrived, the door was locked.  And the guests in Room 7 said their K2 meter went off twice during the night and they got locked out of their room during breakfast.  They had gone up to the church building and did some EVP work and got a girl saying "I'll be quiet too."  It was cute.  Yesterday, I was in the upstairs laundry room when I heard Chuck whistle for me.  I yelled that I was in the laundry room.  A few minutes later, Cindi came down the hall wondering why I was yelling about being in the laundry room.  I told her Chuck had whistled for me but she said that Chuck was outside mowing.  She did not whistle and none of the kids know how.  There were no guests in the building either.  So it must be Curtis.   That was funny.    While in Germany, Chuck and I visited Wartburg Castle where Martin Luther was sequestered for 10 months back in the 1500s.  While touring the castle, we found a small room where the stable workers slept.   There I picked up on a boy of about 15 years old.  He said he worked for the Duke in the stables.  He died in 1570 when a horse kicked him in the head.  His name was Hansemel and he wanted to know what happened to all the horses.  He said that he had tried to talk to the people walking around the castle, but they did not seem to hear him.  He was glad to find somebody to talk to.  He had been to the light and he returned to the castle because he was an orphan and it was the only home he had ever known.  He was happy there, but missed the horses.  He thought it was funny that people like to wander the castle and look at old things.   When we visited the Castle Church in Wittenberg, I came across a little old woman named Anna something, who was the cleaning lady.  She said she used to be a nun, but left to keep the church clean for Dr. Luther.  She was very small and clothed in black from head to foot.  She had a tiny little rag and was dusting and polishing the furniture in the church.  She did not say when she died but she was not happy about all the tourists not showing enough respect for the altar area.  I was not too happy about that either.  At the Town Church in Wittenberg, I picked up a woman who was crying so I began to cry too.  She said her name was Margaretha and that she had been very very bad and she had been crying for forgiveness for a long time.  She had not been to the light and did not think she deserved to go.  She did not want to defile heaven with her filth.  We tried to tell her it would be okay to go and everything would be resolved.  But she would not listen and she left, still crying.  Also in the Town Church, I could see monks in robes off to one side, behind the columns.  And they were chanting, very low and eerily.   We asked the workers there about the monks and they said that other people had heard them too.  I think it is more of a residual thing though.  Germany was amazing!  So full of history and the land is beautiful and the people are so friendly.  

6 July 2012 - The ladies who stayed here on June 22 sent us a copy of the EVP they did up at the church.  The ladies had just said to be quiet and then a little girl says "I'll be quiet too."  It sounds like Anna.  Thank you for the recording!  We have added it to our collection of really good EVPs.   The couple from MPAT who were here on 30 May sent us a link to a video they posted on You Tube.  It shows the bed sheet settling between their ankles when there is no visible reason for them to do so.  Maybe the cat decided to get on the bed with them.  Here is the link to see the video:   www.youtube.com/watch?v=da_aKMn5Pmg    You'll have to use your BACK arrow to return to this page.

8 July 2012 -  Darcie was here last night with one of her Paranormal Studies classes from Kirkwood.  They had several personal experiences.  During the night's investigation, several ladies were out on the bridge when several ladies felt it begin to sway.  They said it felt as if it was a rope bridge.  (Others in the group did not feel the swaying, so it was not the bridge giving way!)  They asked if the bridge was ever made of ropes and we said that, yes, after the 1903 flood a section of the bridge was given a temporary rope bridge until it could be repaired.  They must have been feeling a residual of that era.  Also on the bridge, several of the sensitive people in the group saw Civil War soldiers marching across the bridge.  One was mortally wounded and did not know he was dead.  The ladies, and Harold, helped the man to cross over so he is at peace now.  Later, in the dining room, there was alot of knocking sounds going back and forth and around the room.  I guess Harold was saying HI.   During the night, the lady in the twin bed by the door in Room 5 had her arm stroked and said it felt like a child had put a hand on her calf.  And then it was on her knee, then her thigh.  She asked that it not go any higher and it quit.  In the morning when she was packing up, she could not find her camera that she had put on the bedside table.  She looked all over for it while she was making her bed.  At breakfast she told me about the missing camera in case I found one while cleaning rooms.  After breakfast she went up to get her bags and she saw a lump in the middle of the nicely made bed.  She looked to see what was making the lump and found her camera.......between the sheets and quilt!  She knows it was not there when she made the bed because she smoothed out all the wrinkles so she could see if somebody sat or jumped on the bed while she was gone.   In Room 8, the ladies heard footsteps in the room and their alarm clock rang at 12:11am, even though it was not set to ring.  They had to unplug it to get it to stop.  I think I will switch out that clock again with another room's clock and see if it still does it.  In Room 6, Darcie had set her phone alarm to ring at 7am.  It did not ring at all.  Later she heard it ringing, and it was set to ring at 9:36am.  She knows she did not set it for such a strange time.  I don't know if that was paranormal, but it was definitely weird.

      A lady in Darcie's group, named Cat,  had this to say about her stay: