Halloween 2014

I participated in the Fort Douglas Cemetery Ghost Tour again this year.  Once more I donned the guise of Catherine "Kate" H. Bradley born in Worcester County, Massachusetts July 20th, 1859 and died Nov 8th, 1875 at the young age of 16.

This year I found out that she died of Typhoid fever during the Typhoid fever outbreak of 1875 in Salt Lake City.  Because she was non-mormon she was denied burial in the Salt Lake City cemetery and had to be buried in the military cemetery at Fort Douglas.  It probably helped that her father was Major James F. Bradley a Civil War veteran who served with the Minnesota 8th regiment company E and when he came to Utah joined up with the The Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) a national organization of Union Army Veterans where he was promoted to Senior Vice Commander.  Apparently he was a man of some reputation.

Michael McNamara - Union solider killed by Indians during a postal run.

It got so bad, about the denial of Salt Lake City non-mormon cemetery burials, that President Ulysses S. Grant signed an Act of Congress to establish Mount Olivet Cemetery in 1874 to designate a burial place for all people.  The board of Trustees consisted of a minister and one layman from each of the five denominations having churches in Salt Lake City.

Two Washer Women buried at Fort Douglas.  The first burial at Fort Douglas was in 1863.

When Kate's only sibling, her sister Hester E. Bradley (1863 - 1881) died her remains were re-interred next to her sister in Mount Olivet Cemetery.

Charlotte and her infant baby died a few days apart and were buried together.

Mother Catherine A. Bradley (1822 - Ireland to Feb 13th, 1893) and Father Major James F. Bradley (Oct 25th, 1819 - June 16th, 1895) are also buried at Mount Olivet Cemetery.

Fort Douglas had it's own mascot horse which, upon his passing, was buried up the hill near the cemetery.

It is sad,  They only had the two daughters and the girls both died young. I found their plot number at Mount Olivet and plan on visiting my little family soon.

Governor James Duane Doty (November 5, 1799 – June 13, 1865) was the 5th Utah Governor, appointed by President Lincoln himself and was the first Non-Mormon Governor.  He helped bridge the divide between the Mormons, Non-Mormons, and the Injuns which caused trouble during the Civil War for the Utah Territories.  See Battle of Bear River.

The Salina, Utah Massacre Ghosts.  9 German POWs held in Salina, Utah were shot by a drunken guard one night.  The murderer was never convicted, found incompetent to stand trial, got out of the insane asylum and lived the rest of his life like nothing happened.  Government conspiracy cover-up.  Some of the relatives of the deceased did not even know their loved ones were murdered for 2 years after the event took place.

Jane Morris of the Morrissite War fame.

It was gorgeous weather and we had a good turn out this year.  Hopefully I will get to do it again next year.

 Then for Halloween I decorated the house.  I normally put up the Pirate Flag in the window, but this year I went all out with the spider web.  I love spiders.  Giant spiders.  You know, the ones that don't really exist because if they did they would be crushed by the weight of their own chitin shell and there is not enough oxygen in the atmosphere to support an arachnid that big anyway.

 I even made a Halloween display table.  J painted the skull and we found a pretty glass dome for it to enhance the creepy effect.  The old-timey chemistry vials I have had for a couple of years now and finally have a place to display them properly.

 I went steampunk again this year.  I am currently in love with black and white stripes.

Halloween is our favorite holiday.

Sour Dough Bread

I dedicate this post to Wade Smith who gave me the Sour dough starter.  Thank you.  I finally did it Wade.  I used the starter and made something with it and it turned out delicious.  Thank you thank you thank you.

Sourdough bread

1 cup sourdough started

4 Tbs melted lard or shortening

1 tsp Baking soda

8 cups flour (plus more if needed and for kneading)

2 and 1/2 cup warm water

1/2 cup sugar

1 Tbs salt

Combine starter, all the water, and 3 cups of flour the night before and place in a warm, draft free place.  The next morning add other ingredients and knead until smooth and elastic.  Place in greased bowl in a warm place and let rise to double.  Knead down again, shape into loaves, and let rise to the top of the pan plus a little and bake in greased pans in moderate oven at 375 for about an hour until done.  When it sounds hollow it is ready.  Turn out on racks and let cool.

Surprisingly so few ingredients.

Combine 1 cup sour dough starter, 3 cups water, and 3 cups of flour the night before and place in a warm, draft free place.  I put my bowl in the oven,

This is what it looked like in the morning.  It smelled yeasty and sour-dough-y.

Add the rest of the ingredients and stir together until it forms a ball then knead until smooth and elastic on a floured surface.

Place in greased bowl in a warm place and let rise to double.  Knead down again, shape into two loaves and place in greased bread pans to let rise again to the top of the pan.

Bake at 375F for about an hour until done.  It is done when you tap it and it sounds hollow.  Weird, but true.

Take out of the pan and allow to cool on a cooling rack.  Unless you have no patience like me and burn your fingers cutting it early and just let the butter melt onto the hot bread.

Enjoy.

J's Big Birthday Bash

Happy Birthday to my Amazing Wonderful Delightful Supportive Entertaining Creative husband of 7 years, J. (going on 8 years in November, but we have technically been a couple for 13 years.)

I got a new job.  I work nights.  I am either asleep or at work.  As such I feel like I do not have time for extra curricular activities as I used to do such as Baking, Cooking, Cleaning, Civil War re-enacting, Sewing, Victorian era dancing, Aikido Martial Arts, Jogging, Exercise, Shutterfly, Blogging, Reading, Pinterest, and Facebook.  Yes, my beloved pinterest and facebook followers, my new night job is to blame for the reason that you no longer see my Civil War ball gowns, brownies, or daily Grumpy Cat re-posts.  I miss my daily Grumpy Cat so much.  

To plan for this I used my precious Saturdays to go shopping for utensils, decorations, and print off recipes.  I put all my dry ingredients in bags so baking time would be easier.  I made frosting a couple of days ahead of time.  I had my brother and sister lined up to come early to help decorate and despite his catastrophic sewage back-up flooding his apartment, my brother bravely came early to help me.  He is a very responsible young man.  I made the games and printed them weeks beforehand.  But even with all my pre-preparation, I still only got 4 hours of sleep in two days.  I am a stress monster.  But in the end I think it came together beautifully.  All we really needed was friends and family and cake and I can do cake.

My sister Chelsea decorated outside and made the Happy Birthday board.  She has way better handwriting then I do.

Happy Birthday Jody.

 My parents came over.  I made J's favorite foods:  Yellow Cake, Peanut Butter Bars with home-made peanut butter, Cake Pops, Applesauce Cupcakes, Meatballs, French Bread, and Pineapple.

 I had a soda float station with all our favorite Soda Pops.  We love Soda Pop and ice cream.  I went with Green because that is J's favorite color.  

 (I got the one bottle of lemonade because I have a lot of friends who do not drink Soda.)

 Cake is not as pretty as I wanted it to be, but at least he got a birthday cake.

 Happy Birthday to the most intelligent, humorous, artistic, kindest person I know and am lucky enough to be married to.  He also has an awesome beard to which many are in awe and envious of.  Respect the beard.  Respect it!

 Our friends and family.

 Tom and Kimberli.

 Scarlett, Colin, Ayla, and Angie.

 My Aunt Lonnie and Uncle Mark.

 Our Aikido Sensei Mike.

 Counting Candy.  I put J's favorite candy in jars and had our guests guess how many was in the jar and take it all away from him.  Jolly Ranchers 40, Lemon-head and friends 300, and Tootsie Rolls 40.

 The Birthday party went from 6 - 8pm.  Afterwards our Civil War boys came and had our monthly Civil War meeting.  Jamin, Caleb, and Mark.

 I love our Civil War re-enactment group.  I could not have asked for better friends.

 And this is what happens when Caleb gets my camera.  Rachel, Kimberli, and Amanda.

 Let's end this blog post with a baby.

 Caleb and Amanda's 3 month old baby boy Hunter.  He is adorable.

Here is one of the games I made for our guests to play.

The Many Near-Deaths of Jody Ehrmantrout

(True or False)

1.          At the tender age of four, a motorcycle fell on him trapping his neck between the handle bars and a dog house, asphyxiating him.  He was clinically dead for 15 minutes until revived at the E.R.

2.          At scout camp he was dumped head first into a rain barrel, and unable to right himself, he drowned (only dead for about 5 minutes this time).

3.          He was attacked by a stray dog and had to have a rabies vaccination.  You know, the old way, where they used a ten inch hypo in the abdomen for a series four extremely painful shots.

4.          In a case of drunken mistaken identity he was punched in the face (breaking his nose in ten places and the bone plate behind it in three) by a stranger at a run with a roll of quarters in his fist outside of a convenience store.

5.          He had his right ear torn almost completely off by a dog (in a second dog attack.).

6.          He was in a severe motorcycle accident (the bike flipped, landed on him and they slid down the road for about 60 feet) crushing his upper palate and imparting a road rash that exposed both of his patella (knee caps), and removed his right nipple.

7.          He got lost in a sudden blizzard during a snowmobile ride with friends and had to spend the night in -20 degree temperatures under a tree.

8.          He slipped on ice while going down the stairs to his basement apartment one night and suffered a severe concussion.

9.          While riding his motorcycle through the school parking lot a car backed into him, breaking three of his ribs.

10.      A bowling ball rolled off of a closet shelf and landed on the top of his head, resulting in yet another concussion.

11.      In a quad runner accident he flipped and crashed through a three inch in diameter tree. Had the tree   been any wider it would most likely have broken his back.

12.      While climbing into a treehouse he fell 15 feet when the ladder broke, landed flat on his back collapsing both lungs.

13.      He walked his bike home with a 2x4 nailed to the bottom of his foot.

14.      He had measles, mumps, chicken pox, and scarlet fever.  (Yes, he was immunized.)

15.      In the fourth grade he ran into a set of play bars on the playground, landed on his back, and collapsed a lung.

16.      He was bitten by a brown recluse spider; on two separate occasions.

They are all true.  I could go on, but I had to stop at one page.

Happy Birthday Jody.  August 22nd, 2014.