Strange

   This was just strange, to me at lest. I was sitting at the computer looking up some items on E Bay. My attention was on the monitor and what I was looking up. I thought I felt my dog place his paws on the arm of my chair, the chair even shifted slightly like added weight was added. He does this sometimes when it is about time to take him out. I placed my arm down, to encircle him and say "just a minute"; but he was not there. My hand and arm met only empty space. Looking into the den from my place in the library I could plainly see my dog lying on my wife's lap. I definitely felt something that automatically elicited an appropriate reaction from me. But obviously, it hadn't happened. I suppose theres a logical explaination for this. It just seems strange to me.

Strange recorded sounds

     A couple of weeks ago, I had the sound activated recorder set up in the Green room. I had a lot of my dogs barking on it, and a few household voices could be heard coming from elsewhere in the house. Then I got the sound of what sounded like a bell ringing, like it was being carried. It had the sound of a pretty good sized bell. The sound appeared to be in the same room as the recorder, that is, it did not have a far away or outside sound. I figured since it was so lound and clear I'd find its source. The only bell anywhere near the Greenroom is a small shipsbell that hangs beside the western rear entrance to the house. I tried ringing it with the recorder on; the result was both higher in pitch and sounded farther away; much much further away; the first attempt didn't activate the recorder; hitting it really hard did, but the results were not the same. So I have no immediate explaination for the ringing bell. HOWEVER, I had the recorder ,last week, in an alcove in the wall in the turn of the wall of the front winding staircase. The recorder was located beside a lamp we keep in that alcove. The external mike was a good inch from the wall and hanging just about 4 inches up from the stairway carpet. We rarely use the front stairs so I felt that external noises would be at a minimum. The recorder was on sound activation for three days before I got around to checking it. It had about 4 minutes of tape that had run. When I ran that four minutes of tape I had my own voice on part of it as I was setting it up. Then a silent period of a few seconds, then the strangest sounds; almost, but not quite like a stringed instrument being plucked. I have no explaination. I'm sure there must be one. But I don't have it. I'm going to try again the same place this week and see if it should reoccur.

A long loud moan

  First weird sound in a while and where was my recorder? Upstairs in the green room of course. My dog and I have the house all to ourselves this week. Well, not quite, we do have workmen remodeling the downstairs bath, but they leave anywhere between 2:30 and 4:30. So tonight, about 5 minutes before 9:00 pm, I'm reading at the computer and my dog is lying not three feet from me. From the diningroom comes a long low moan; startles me, the pup looks up toward the diningroom then lies his head back down in a nonchalant manner. Of course I have the recorder set up in the upstairs green room unstead of the diningroom. Tonight...I'm going to try the diningroom again; I'll set it just before I retire for the night.

Recordings

So far no unexplained noises have shown up on the recorder. The wife went to see friends this week. Now I can record with noone but me and the dog. I'm going to try the green room first; then the front hall and stairs. Actually the house has been very quiet since I tried recording. Timid ghosts?

Recorded sounds

     So far the recorder I purchased is sensitive enough to pick up the sound of my walking to it. It also picked up the firetruck siren and two loud mufflers. Thats all so far. So unless I get something worth talking about; I won't. I will continue trying the recorder in different parts of the house; but unless I get results that are not readily explained I'll not discus it further.

Tape recorder

    Well running the old Wecor reel to reel tape recorder didn't record anything that wasn't easily explained and the hours of just sitting and listening for something is downright boring. So today, I purchased a General Electric tape recorder with automatic activation and a seperate microphone. It has volume control and sensitivity control. I set it up in our Livingroom, on the table, with the external mike dangling about a foot above the floor. I have the volume on maximum and the sensitivity set at maximum. Now well see what transpires if anything. I chose the livingroom over the dininroom primarily because the livingroom can be closed off from outside sounds. My wife has the livingroom set up in total victorian fashion, so its rarely used unless we have company and once those massive oak doors are closed, very little sound is heard from the outside. The fire siren, and a very loud muffler can be heard but talking or even shouting from outside doesn't penetrate. If I get no satisfaction in the livingroom I will move the recorder to the diningroom ; but will have to activate it after dark because the diningroom is the hub of the house and we are constantly moving through it to go to other rooms such as the kitchen, library, or Den. There are two other areas I might try later on; the Green room and the Frontstairs and upstairs hall. The attic was mentioned when I was still trying to use the old Webcore, but I'm not sure how sound isolated it might be. Still a possibility ,as is the basement.

A neighbors experience

     Our neighbors across the street moved into their 1830s brick residence just a few years ago. They are relatively new to the village but not to the area. He is a professional photographer and his wife teaches school here. The couple have one child, a son, and another on the way. They told us today about their strange experiences in their house. His wife admitted that when they first moved in they had heard the stories about my house and thought we were "putting people on", or were very superstitious. They also confessed they had totally changed their minds. For the past year, they said, it had become a joke between them, that some one; they both pointed fingers at each other, was moving the chair at the foot of the stairs that led to the front door. The chair was always placed backing onto the stairs and against the wall. Every morning it would be sitting facing the front door. Every day they moved it back into its original spot. They even got to the point of thinking their son (3 years old) was in some way responsible; but really a three year old isn't too likely to continually pull such a stunt over and over? But this past week climaxed the whole affair and they are now solidly in our camp...wondering whats going on. Junior went to spend three days with gramma and grandpa. The very first day he was gone they were awakened in the middle of the night by the sound of a child running up the stairs and through the hall. They were both outta their bed, hearts pounding, wondering what on earth happened that the grandparents would bring their grandchild back so soon, and so very early in the morning before the sun was even up. A search of the house revealed no child but the chair again faced the front door. A call to gramma revealed the child was still in bed asleep. The same thing happened the third night the child was gone, but not since he returned. But the chair is still found facing the door of a morning. Keep in mind these are people who thought such weird activities was bosch or hoaxters. I suspect other places in town have stories to tell; but most locals only tell them to each other; never to an outsider who might think them crazy.