A House Made of Embalming Fluid Bottles : )

You won't find this house in the story of "The Three Little Pigs!" I don't think the big bad wolf could huff and puff enough to blow this house down!

This unusual roadside attraction was built from over half a million discarded embalming fluid bottles. In 1952, David H. Brown retired from 35 years in the funeral business. It occurred to Mr. Brown that there should be some practical use to put the bottles to. And, it was all started, to quote Mr. Brown, "to indulge a whim of a peculiar nature".Mr. Brown travelled western Canada collecting bottles from many of his friends in the funeral profession, until he had acquired 500,000 of the square shaped bottles, weighing 250 tons in all.The house itself sits upon solid rock. Built in a cloverleaf pattern with three main rooms, circular shape, 48 feet in length, 24 feet wide and with the upstairs room, it contains 1,200 sq ft of floor space.

Entering the grounds, the visitors are welcomed by a mountain stream trickling over a moss-covered water wheel which brings to life the dwarf inhabitants nestled around the wishing well.
Over 320 dozen flowers border pathways and entice visitors from the terrace over a bridge also built of glass bottles. A winding path beneath the bridge leads to the rocky lakeshore and a lookout called the lighthouse which offers a spectacular view of beautiful Kootenay Lake.
Tours of the estate are available seven days a week, May to October. Gift shop also located on property just 25 miles north of Creston on the shores of Kootenay Lake.

The Glass HouseBox 64Boswell, BCVOB 1AOPhone: 250-223-8372Fax: 250-223-8332Email: glasshouse@kootenay.com

Few Civil War Soliders Were Embalmed... Did you know?

Interesting story in the September 10th, 2007 edition of the Washington Times, about how few Civil War Soldiers were embalmed.

According to James Lowry a historian, author and professional embalmer out of Charleston, W. VA; of the roughly 620,000 soldiers killed from 1861 to 1865 during the war, only 40,000 were injected with chemicals to preserve their remains. The two factors determining whether you would be preserved were a) money, and b) condition of the body. "Most soldiers were buried where they fell," according to Lowry.

The National Museum of Civil War Medicine in downtown Frederick, MD has a permanent exhibit on embalming which flourished during the war as family members sought to have their loved ones bodies returned home for burial which could take days. "The body has to be free of odor before they would ship it and if a corpse started stinking in transit, workers removed it from the train and buried it at the next train stop."

As soldiers went off to battle, some embalmers handed them fliers encouraging them to prepay for their embalming at rates up to $100.00 according the the museum records. Those who accepted were given cards to carry as proof of purchase, specifying their burial wishes. According to Lowry, this practice was eventually barred because it hurt troop morale. Instead, embalmers followed the battles and picked through he dead to find officers, whose families were likely to be wealthy enough to pay for embalming.

The embalmers were generally doctors who learned about chemical preservation for human tissue in medical school. Whole body preservation gained widespread acceptance with he embalming of Col. Elmer E. Ellsworth a Friend of President Lincoln and leader of the 11th New York Zouave Regiment who was among the first to die for the Union. Ellsworth was shot May 24, 1861 after removing a Confederate flag from atop the Marshall House Inn in Alexandria, VA

Lincoln had Ellsworth's body bought to the White House where it laid in state for a day before being moved to City Hall in New York. Ellworth was buried in Mechanicsville, N.Y. 10 days after his death, and was in very good condition at the time of his burial.

During the war, embalers used arsenic, alcohol, zinc chloride and other chemicals to preserve bodies because formaldehyde had not been discovered yet.

Lowry said that one of the wars best known embalmers was Dr. Richard Burr who worked out of a tent at the Battle of Gettysburg and out of the building that now houses the Civil War Medicine Museum during the battles of Antietam, South Mountain and Monocacy.

Cemetery Stories... Enter the world of the dead...

Cemetery Stories: Haunted Graveyards, Embalming Secrets, and the Life of a Corpse After Death



Never look at a grave the same way again.


Admit it: You're fascinated by cemeteries. We all die, and for most of us, a cemetery is our final resting place. But how many people really know what goes on inside, around, and beyond them?



Enter the world of the dead as Katherine Ramsland talks to mortuary assistants, gravediggers, funeral home owners, and more, and find out about:

• Stitching and cosmetic secrets used on mutilated bodies


• Embalmers who do more than just embalm


• The rising popularity of cremation art


• Ghosts that infest graveyards everywhere


• If you've ever scoffed at the high price of burying the dead, or ever wondered how your loved ones are handled when they die, or simply stared at tombstones with morbid fascination, then take a trip with Katherine Ramsland and learn about the booming industry -- and strange tales -- that surround cemeteries everywhere.

Fun Facts About Corpses... And other things you really don't want to know....

Funeral homes are actually banned by federal law from embalming your beloved departed without your permission. This will save you hundreds or thousands of dollars in costs, and it actually isn't likely to stink up the funeral too much. There is no legal requirement for embalming (except under extraordinary circumstances related to the condition of the corpse or cause of death). Your tax dollars at work!

If your funeral director balks at your effort to save thousands of dollars by opting to avoid a procedure that is mandated by neither religion nor hygienic necessity, try a Jewish funeral home. Jews are forbidden from having their corpses embalmed, under normal circumstances.
You can pack your loved one in dry ice, if you don't have time to embalm him or her right on the spot. A large freezer or cooler can also keep your loved one fresh for a couple days.

Embalming is mostly a North American practice in modern times. European corpses have that trendy "au naturel" look. But Lenin-style super-embalming has recently become the fashion among Russian Mafia bosses. Go figure.

There are more than 400 movies with the word "corpse" in the title, but only one movie with the word "embalming" in the title. It's 1999's Enbamingu, which is Japanese for "embalming." The movie features lots of depictions of Japanese embalming practices, among other things.

Read more from this site ... Like the "history of embalming;" "Mummification" and other interesting topics. All kidding aside... this is a pretty cool site if you have the stomach for it : )

(source)

A Little Halloween Humor : )

Do your own conveyancing...Do it yourself plumbing and heating...Embalm your own relatives.

Found here