Need Help with my simulation

[Q-Ball]

Anyone who lives in the northern US this year has experienced a brutal winter. Today where I am, another 6 inches of snow, followed by sub-zero temperatures.

I want to get back into WITE, though, and this strikes me as the perfect opportunity to get in the WITE spirit. It's feeling very Russian Front around here right now, so why not go all the way and really immurse myself?

So, to really get a feel for what it was like in 41-42, for some research, and I need some help with my checklist. Any suggestions?

1. I will live outside until Monday
2. Dress: Leather dress shoes, 1 flannel shirt, 1 pair pants, 1 pair socks. I can use straw and newspaper, though, for insulation
3. Food: SPAM and year-old Saltines.
4. I will dig a hole in the backyard. No shovel, using a long knife or similar implement.
5. I will ask my neighbor, who has a gun, to occasionally pop a couple rounds in my direction. Preferably at night, when I am trying to sleep.
6. Son will, on the hour, drop a couple M-60s or similar firework on my position....again, hopefully in middle of the night
7. Only reading material will be 2 month old back issues of Der Spiegel

Am I missing anything?

[Commanderski]

You may want to add:
8. Have a neighbor start run a tractor occasionally to simulate tank movement.
9. Boil tree bark for your hot drink from an old bucket if you can't find a helmet anywhere, using melted snow of course.

[jwolf]

Heh.  I live in Northern Illinois, too, about an hour west of you.  We've been spoiled with mild winters for many years, and Mother Nature finally caught up with us.  BTW for non US readers, when Q-Ball says "subzero temps" he means Fahrenheit, not Celsius.  So it's been cold here, but admittedly not Russian style cold.

To add to your list, I suppose your neighbor could have a nice campfire with good, hot food -- in plain sight of your position as you chow down on your spam and crackers.

[loki100]

ORIGINAL: jwolf

To add to your list, I suppose your neighbor could have a nice campfire with good, hot food -- in plain sight of your position as you chow down on your spam and crackers.

or even more realistically - make regular attempts to ensure he gets to eat the spam and crackers having made you move back to a neighbouring garden?

[timmyab]

Don't have a wash for a month and make sure that your clothing is infested with lice before you start. Take some pets rats with you.

[Lobster]

First move to where it actually is cold. North Dakota or the plains of Canada would be good. You get to sleep in a shack but no fire since the only wood is the shack. When your neighbor and son do their thing you have to run outside and stay there for several hours. You don't get to eat the horse, you did that last month. But you get whatever stray dogs come close enough. You have to sleep with a cold rifle so it's not frozen when you need it. You have to amputate every other toe to simulate frostbite.

You can look forward to next winter when you will be closer to home and closer still each successive winter. Before you know it, your back yard is the front lines.

[gingerbread]

So what brand of vodka have you chosen? Or did you forget that??

[TulliusDetritus]

ORIGINAL: gingerbread

So what brand of vodka have you chosen? Or did you forget that??

I recommend Baikalskaya Vodka. Tasty [8D] Moving to Irkutsk or Ulan Bator would be nice too. Now that IS cold! -35 C... - 38 C...

EDIT: oops, wrong brand! Anyway, what's wrong with whisky? Half a liter should largely suffice [:D]

[RedLancer]

Everyone if focusing at the wrong level IMO - in WitE you're the boss - so get comfortable, help yourself to your neighbour's stuff and execute your friends when they disappoint.

[carlkay58]

The weather north of Detroit has been worse than Siberia for four or more days out of the last ten - I quit tracking it because it depressed my wife and prompts the 'why do we live here?' questions.

Oh, by the by, to the uninitiated, Celsius temperatures are sub-zero at below 32 Fahrenheit, so sub-zero F temperatures are actually colder than Celsius!

[Aurelian]

You need explosives to dig into the ground, (that's how hard it was the first winter.)
 
No flannel. Summer clothes only.
 
Surround sound speakers crying "Urrah!!!" when you start dozing off.

[TulliusDetritus]

ORIGINAL: carlkay58

The weather north of Detroit has been worse than Siberia for four or more days out of the last ten - I quit tracking it because it depressed my wife and prompts the 'why do we live here?' questions.

Oh, by the by, to the uninitiated, Celsius temperatures are sub-zero at below 32 Fahrenheit, so sub-zero F temperatures are actually colder than Celsius!

For you it's "four days". For Siberians it's how it is the whole winter [:D] The normal stuff, not the weird Worst Storm of the Century [:D]

[SBD]

4. I will dig a hole in the backyard. No shovel, using a long knife or similar implement.

8. Have a neighbor start run a tractor occasionally to simulate tank movement.

Have your neighbor drive his tractor over your entrenchment to simulate being overrun by armor. Should provide additional incentive to dig.

[Schmart]

ORIGINAL: TulliusDetritus

ORIGINAL: carlkay58

The weather north of Detroit has been worse than Siberia for four or more days out of the last ten - I quit tracking it because it depressed my wife and prompts the 'why do we live here?' questions.

Oh, by the by, to the uninitiated, Celsius temperatures are sub-zero at below 32 Fahrenheit, so sub-zero F temperatures are actually colder than Celsius!

For you it's "four days". For Siberians it's how it is the whole winter [:D] The normal stuff, not the weird Worst Storm of the Century [:D]

I've lived in the Arctic, where it's -30c (if not -40c) for months. You look forward to and celebrate the days when it 'warms up' to only -20c!