Saturday night recap

I was at the haunted Wolfe Manor (formerly the Andleberry Estate) on Saturday helping with a paranormal class. It was soooooo damn hot while I was there (from around 9:00 to 11:00), especially inside the house. The house is old, was built around the 1920's with no insulation and old style windows. Was at least 90 degrees in there, probably worse on the second floor where I was actually sweating. I don't really think anything happened, I still need to go over the photos I took so who knows. It was so damn hot in there that something may have happened and I just didn't care. Though I thought I did see something out of the corner of my eye, a figure, but like I said who knows.

I left around 11:00 as my friend Chris, who is moving away, is having a going away party over his friend Ron's house (it was his birthday as well). Didn't stay too long after Chris left. I'll probably do something with him this week before he leaves.

The Hunt

Well I did the investigation last night in Fresno (can't say where as the clients want to keep it quiet). Wasn't a typical investigation though as my group leader Jackie was teaching a class focusing on photos and evp and this was the field trip. But since we haven't investigated before, this was new for us as well.

From what we were told, people had seen two figures on the second floor, both kinda in the same area. When we started we split up into two groups and mine had the first floor and the other had the second. My group decided to investigate the area on the first floor that corresponded to where the activity occured on the second. Not much really happened, but we spent thirty minutes walking around and taking photos and video. We took a break and met back up with the other group. They said they heard tapping in the supposed active rooms, so we decided to go there first.

When I first walked in the room, I didn't like what I was feeling. Jen, who was also in my group, felt the same and she said it felt like someone was watching us. I didn't feel that, but I knew I just didn't like the room. I took both video and photos of the room. I didn't hear any tapping like the other group had said and wondered if it wasn't just nerves or maybe the AC was on (we were told it was off.

We walked into the adjacent room and I felt the same bad feeling. Jen felt the same and we wondered if whatever it was, was following us perhaps. Did more photos, videos, and this time some evp. After ten minutes or so we left the room and headed towards the opposite end of the building. We started hearing banging coming from the ceiling, but it had a metallic sound so I figured it was the HVAC system and the ducts were making the sound. We headed back downstairs after this and met up with the other group again.

I decided now that I wanted to film the other group so I followed them for a bit. I followed them back upstairs and heard the same banging noise again. They thought it was paranormal, and when I tried to explain it to them for whatever reason they wouldn't listen. I guess it's a difference of ideals. I try to rule out anything natural, and then whatever is left is then supernatural. But I guess some people want to believe so bad that there are ghosts everywhere. Whatever. At least Jen agreed with me, and so did the rest of my group. Just not the students.

We ended the night by doing an EVP session in the room where the banging was going on. I guess the clients had heard this and the students got over excited and didn't put two and two together and thought some activity was going on. We went back up there and heard the banging. Once again I said it was the ducting, but people were disagreeing, saying the air was off. I mentioned that most buildings have the HVAC do the ventilating also since the windows don't open. I think that might have sunk in, since it was happening so much and most paranormal activity isn't that frequent. Still we did some recording.

Honestly I don't know what to say about the place. The groups were all over the place and then they stuck to one area for two long so it was impossible to get a feel for the place. If there is anything there, it's those two rooms where I felt uncomfortable. I'm not too sure about the rest of the place. And I have a feeling we won't have a chance to go back. Oh well. Next thing is back at the Sierra Sky Ranch and that's always fun.

Back at the Ranch

Was back at the Sierra Sky Ranch last night for another ghost investigation. This one was different. It wasn't a class field trip like last month, though we did have a few students, whose names we drew, also with us was KSEE 24 who was filming us. My friend Rom produces the 11:00 news there and he had asked me a few months if he could do a piece on us for the November sweeps.

Tom and I decided to drive up together, made more sense to take one vehicle and save on gas. I always like the drives to and from these things with him, our conversations are always interesting. We got there around 6:00 or so and met up with the group and students. We decided to have dinner and it cracked me up how the waitresses remember Tom from the previous week when we went up there for the KISS Country promo.

Dinner was ok, I tried the chili for my soup and it wasn't that good. I had the rib eye again as the menu doesn't have much on it and before an investigation I always want a big meal so I have enough energy for the night. Once again I didn't try the deep fried cheesecake. I wonder if it's fate's way of saving me the heart attack?

Right after dinner Ron and the news crew showed up and I introduced him to Jackie and the rest of CCPI. I told him we were going to do our meeting and they were welcome to join us and watch. He wanted to film so we wound up doing that. I introduced him to everyone and the cameraman was filming Jackie talk and I was talking to the reporter telling her what we do, some of the equipment we use, and a brief history of the group. Before heading out both Jackie and I made it very clear that this was a serious investigation and everyone must be on their best behavior. This was really due to one person and I hated to punish the others but I didn't want this thing with 24 fucked up. Seems fate was on my side and nothing happened.

I'll spare the details of the areas we investigated, they were the same as when the class was taken up there. Though we did go up to a two story building that seemed to be the center of some negative energy. One of the students, Jennifer who is a bit sensetive, was feeling pressure on her body. She really couldn't explain it but you could tell she was uncomfortable.

I wasn't able to take many photos (yet again) since there were ten other people on the investigation and it was all one group since Jackie wanted to make sure the students behaved. That and 24 was filming and I didn't want to be on camera. I did go into the pantry area of the kitchen and did a few minutes of evp recording, but I'm still going over that.

Overall I was happy with everything, and was very thankful that 24 was up there. Hopefully the piece will be good. I was told it will air sometime this month and when it does I plan on recording it and posting to YouTube. From there I'll post here.

One more note. The team decided to ask Jennifer to join. This rounds us to eight and I think she'll make a great addition. She is extremely enthusiatic about this and I know she will make a good addition to the group. Our next investigation will be that office we missed the first time around. This time I hope we can get in.

Ghostly Ranch

The lobby at Sierra Sky Ranch



Did an investigation of sorts last night, but wasn't the typical type. One member of my group is teaching a intro to the paranormal class at the Adult Ed. school in Fresno and part of the course is to go to an actual haunted location and put to pratice what they learned in class. Since the class had twenty students, the rest of the group was needed to make sure everyone followed the rules and lend any advice if needed.

The place is called Sierra Sky Ranch and it's up above Oakhurst. The history of the place begins in the 1850's as a cattle ranch. During the 1940's it was a TB sanatirium. From this period it seems where most of the ghosts came from. There is a nurse up in the loft, two men in the kitchen (one was a cook there), and another in the honeymoon suite.

I left home around 3:30 and drove an hour or so up into the mountain where the place is at. I told Jackie (the person teaching)that I would meet her around 4:30 or so, that way we could do a daylight walkthrough. I had been at the place before, but that was at night and since I was leading a group I needed to know the lay of the land, so to speak. After that the group then met to discus the night and assign groups. We decided not to do the loft above the lobby (even though it's a hotspot), as one person would not be able to go up there and we felt it wasn't fair to exclude just one person.

We met for dinner around 7:00, and most of the class was there. I chatted with a few and was trying to get a read off them. I was impressed with everyone's knowledge, and attested it to their teacher. Dinner was good, I had a rib eye (they had no fillet damnit) and it was good, had a good spice to it. Mashed potatoes were ok, they were called garlic but I couldn't taste it. Green beans were different, they had a sweetness to them. I think it came from the carmelized onion. I wanted to have the deep fried cheesecake, but had no stomach room so I had to decline. We are going back in November so I will order that first.

Around 9;00 the entire group met in the library. I need to backtrack for a second. The entire place has free WiFi and I was playing Guild Wars most of my free time. Makes me want broadband any more. But back to the meeting, Jackie was going over the rules of everything and introducing the class to the rest of the group. There were four groups and each one of us was paired off with one. I introudced myself and we headed outside waiting for the restaurant to close up.

We started at the back of the building and I just let the group wander around and take pictures. We did this for about twenty minutes or so and not much happened so we headed back to the library. Rested a bit then headed out to the front but not much happened there. I decided to do the lobby and the rooms that were open. Since that was near the library I fired up Guild Wars and let the group do there thing. After a bit I went to the lobby were they were and we decided to head to the kitchen since it was now closed. That's when the fun began.

We get in the kitchen and one of the members says someone grabbed their ass. They were all feeling a negative presense, for what it was worth. But then something crazy happened. One of them had their camcorder hanging from their neck and pointed downwards. The battery flies off and moves up and arcs down. There was no way for the locking device to have failed, even so the battery would have just fallen. Not much really happened after that, some had some weird sensations but I chock that up to nerves.

One final incident did happen. I was in the room of the group and one member was telling me a story. Right then a duffel bag on the bag fell over like it was pushed. I thought maybe it was just gravity, but the bag was light and it had moved as if something was pushed.

After that I returned to the library were everyone met to discuss what happened. Everyone had a good time which is always good, and I think this was more interesting then Andleberry as we actually had several incidents with different groups. Luckily CCPI itself is going back on November 4th to conduct a private investigation. I can't wait.