Date When W64 Registration Opens

[Kevin O'Beirne]

W64 EVENT ANNOUNCEMENT

Event coordinator Scott Schotz has asked that this information be posted immediately:

Registration for “Winter 1864” 2008 will officially open on Monday, September 24, 2007. On that date, we’ll post the registration form on the event listserver’s “Yahoo Group” website’s “Files” section. Parties interested in the event will need to download the form, print it, fill it out, and send it, together with a check for $25, via US Mail to the event registrar (registrar’s name, address, and to whom the check should be payable are all on the registration form). The registration form will NOT be posted prior to September 24.

When the window opens, it’s suggested that folks interested in attending this event not procrastinate. The number of available slots is very limited and, if the indications are correct, they’re going to be taken very quickly.

Please remember that the W64 2008 event standards, rules, and regulations are already posted in the W64 Yahoo Group “Files” section and in the event’s folder on the Authentic Campaigner Forum (www-authentic-campaigner.com)

We’re looking forward to seeing you at “Winter 1864” 2008!

[Johnny Lloyd]

Sir-

In this event's thread, you have previously mentioned that there might be room for female civilian impressions. Could you elaborate on this?

I'd love to attend the event and I'd love to get my wife involved as well. Would it be a good event for her as she hasn't yet done an immersion/EFUBU event?

Thanks- Johnny Lloyd

[Kevin O'Beirne]

Thanks for the interest of you and your wife, but I regret to say that the limited number of roles for civilians at this event were allocated (assigned to certain individuals) as far back as April 2007. Unless someone drops out, there's no room for additional civilian portrayals at this one.

To state what's probably obvious, the only roles for women at this event are limited to company laundresses. And, to be honest, it's a rough portrayal for the women doing it--actualy washing dirty laundry, and in what will probably be (ahem) "adverse" weather conditions. The laundresses' hut at the event site is solidly built, but still "authentically" crude. Let's hope that the men in the ranks aren't the same toward the laundresses. :)

[Johnny Lloyd]

Kevin-

Yeah, I recently fully read your AAR from the 2006 event and noticed the temperatures... She WOULDN'T like that at all. She gets cold sitting on the couch... jeez! ;):rolleyes:

But for all intents and purposes, consider me unofficially "signed-up" even ahead of the 24 SEP 07 date... I'll make a holiday of it and try my darndest to beg'n borrow to get my kit tighter for it.

I've been from the deserts of Iraq to the frozen training grounds of Bavaria with the US Army and "we are an all-weather Army". :p LOL

Exciting! Sounds great- I cannot wait... -Johnny Lloyd

[GrumpyDave]

"Let's hope that the men in the ranks aren't the same toward the laundresses."

Would you expect anything less? The ladies will have to be thick skinned if that Sutler feller is around again. Course man he was, very course. ;)

[Charles Heath]

Grumpy,

I suspect the individual who portrayed dear sweet Erasmus last time around may be thumping a right thick book this time around. Can't say for sure, but the odds, terrible as they may be, tend to sway in that general direction.

[theknapsack]

Marked on my calendar.

Riley Ewen

[Charles Heath]

We spend a great deal of time with heat/hydration, and heat related casualty prevention, so shifting to cold weather experiences can be a real change of pace. Some of you are tired of reading this, but for those who envision warm huts, balmy breezes, and palm trees on the sunny shores of Lake Ontario in midwinter (it can happen), take some time to inventory your cold weather gear and decide what to add, repair, or improve.

1. Buy, borrow, or steal a great coat. If you still have a skinner row great coat, consider upgrading that item of equipment before folks start an Oklahoma (sorry, Keith) land rush to buy them specifically for this event. I don't do product endorsements, as a rule, but my federal issue great coat came from Chris Daley, and it has kept me warm in some cold event conditions, and when it gets below zero F around here I wear it to haul hay and feed to the animals. It works well down to -8 degree F with a 35 mph breeze.

2. You'll want mittens, even if your mittens are nothing but a pair of worn out socks over your soon to be blue hands. If your mittens are nice soft cotton, upgrade to wool. Cotton gets wet and gets frozen. The hobby has a lot of knitters, and this is a good time to get in touch with the lanolin side of life. It's the Army. Want cold weather gear? Order it in the summer.

3. Many living historians prance around gay and happy still in their wonderful, colorful, bountiful, scarves draped around their necks and shoulders as if some form of holiday decoration. When The Hawk is blowing down your collar faster than a speeding locomotive, you'll realize it is more than just a dandy decoration. Don't have "fundages" for a scarf? Seems a blanket selling feller by the name of Woodburn somewhere around here used to have blanket scarves in stock.

4. Never had a sleeping cap? Oh, sure, some of you still have hair on your head, but for the aging, infirm, decrepit, and -- wait, there's a self portrait too close to home - a sleeping cap will come in handy when that little wood stove runs out of little wood sometime in the dark and cold morning after you are soaked from sweat from it's previous incarnation as a bright cherry red orb. Get something for your head, and a sleeping cap fits under a forage cap as a liner to keep those China cup fragile ears from shattering.

5. Drawers. Keep your twig-n-berries warm. You may also wish to have some grease for the gettin', as the winter cold/dry weather can cause as much chafing as the salty sweat (O'Bee has a word for this product) can in the summer. You laugh now, but a case of hamburger hiney on day 2 of a 4 day event is not a pretty sight.

6. Never had a bottom shirt? This is a good reason to have a period undershirt of some kind. A number of vendors used to sell these, and I have one that is about 20 years old, and smells that way, too. A canton flannel undershirt or one of those nice knit bottom shirts is golden. If nothing else, feel free to wear a cotton shirt under your federal issue shirt. You'd best have a federal issue shirt. Not for styling, but for keeping your happy little self warm. Another rare product endorsement can be found in the non-AC vendors section of this forum for Mr. Quednau's federal issue shirts.

7. Before I leave the hobby, I'm going to eventually, finally, okay, definitely maybe modify my greatcoat with a pair of pockets for the dang mittens. I'll probably wait until some enterprising young fellow offers a kit for this purpose, but pockets are a great thing to have.....

8. Socks! Get a second pair of wool socks. Leave the cotton feet freezers at home.

9. See any Bully Buy potential up there? I do, and at least one of them is being offered at the moment, if my foggy memory serves me.

10. It's a winter camp. You have luxuries from home and elsewhere. Get some extra bedclothes, such as a blanket, quilt, carpet, bed ticking, etc. Those bunks are not the nice comfy hotel beds you business travelers are accustomed to using. The huts are nice. Make them your home.

11. Having spent time in some right cold places by virtue of Uncle Sam's travel club, I can say this isn't going to be a cold weather survival course, but you can prepare youself to have a more comfortable time. With the event less than six months away, this is about the time to get items on order, so they can be on-hand.

12. I am not cooking at this event. (The crowd roars with approval!) The bad news is after you eat Chef Coldfoot's cooking, such that it is, you'll dang sure appreciate anything I've ever set out on the serving line. Yes, even the infamous Fort Donelson mule feed, and Coldfoot has an even more colorful name for that special substance, but forum decorum and the swear filter prevents me from mentioning it here. Just close your eyes and eat it.

Thank you, and good night Mrs. Calabash, wherever you are.

[NoahBriggs]

Newfane NY is a place where your ink, my iodine and the squad's thunderpot contents are all frozen with equal meterological zeal by a non-partisan wind. Mr. Heath deploys his usual literary stilettos and Mid-East dry humor. However, speaking as a W64 survivior I can tell you - from personal ice-cold-blue-hand experience - all which he has writ is true. You gotta be there to believe it.

[Charles Heath]

"Say, boys, these biscuits are so fluffy and light they could serve double duty as solid shot!" - Anon. patron of the cookhouse.

Nothing quite like seeing a man try to extinguish a fire with a pail of frozen night soil.

[Matt Woodburn]

Expounding upon Charles' points #2 and #7. Tightly braid three strands of wool yarn into an 8-9 foot length. Tie the ends through the cuffs of your mittens. Drape the yarn string behind your neck and put your mittens on. Then put your overcoat on with the yarn string running down the sleeves of your coat. This may resemble something you have seen small children do. Now if you have to take off your mittens outside in the cold and don't have pockets in which to stow them, they will hang neatly from your coat sleeve and not fall into the snow, water, mud, fire, etc. My grandmother told me that her grandmother knitted mittens this way for soldiers during the Civil War.

[Charles Heath]

Matt,

Garr Gast does this, and within minutes folks are copying this mitten attachment method. Monkey see. Monkey do.

[Goat]

For the Yarn Challenged, you can always stuff the mittens in the cuff of your greatcoat, like God intended. Also, the cape on a greatcoat is NOT a fashion statement. It is a hood. Experiment. Figure it out. It will save you. Trust me.

Rob Willis
I like pockets, though.:D

[Kevin O'Beirne]

It's not that cold at Newfane in February.... :D

[Charles Heath]

Well, Kevin, it may just be folks from New York and Wisconsin tend to think Mississippi gets a bit warm in the summer, and folks from lower Alabama and Louisiana may think any place where snow gathers itself any higher than shoe mouth deep is a veritable winter wonderland. That being said, I'm tickled to death the 2008 season begins in just 21 days.

[PvtSmythe]

Shoes Colonel.... the men need shoes, make sure those shoes are up to snuff boys, get them fixed if they are cracked, torn or need soles. Dont wait till the last minute! February is coming soon. There are also some period recipes out there for semi water proofing. 2006 brought no snow, but the temps were freezing at night and the ground tends to soften up during the day creating quite a slick walk to the sinks. Like Charles said, bring extra WOOL socks.

Peter Smith
W-64 committee member

[Kevin O'Beirne]

Pete's post contains good advice: if you intend to participate at W64, start working in repairing your gear and obtaining the stuff you'll need (scarf, mittens, overcoat, etc.) NOW.

That said, this thread's about registration...

On Monday 9/17 (happy Antietam anniversary) we'll be posting the TIME when the W64 registration form will be available. Registration opens on Monday, September 24, 2007.

[Kevin O'Beirne]

The registration form for "Winter 1864" 2008 will be posted on the event's Yahoo Group for use by interested parties starting at 10:30 p.m. on Sunday evening, September 23, 2007. The event’s Yahoo Group website is: http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/w64/.

To register for the event download the form, fill it out completely, and submit it via US Mail or other means (e-mailed forms are not acceptable). To be valid, each registration must be accompanied by a check or money order for the entire registration fee plus the registration deposit ($35 total; of this amount, $10 will be refunded to each participant who is present for the entire event, said refund to be provided immediately following the conclusion of hte event). Submit one registration form for each individual.

During the week of 9/17/2007, the event committee will contact individuals pre-selected to hold certain ranks or jobs at the event, including individuals slated for certain "scenarios", regarding their registration status. These individuals will need to submit their registration data and payment like everyone else.

W64 2008 is a four-day event (Wednesday PM through midday Sunday), February 20-24, 2008. Those who cannot or will not commit to attending for the entire event should not register for this event, because they would be taking a bunk away from someone who can and will attend for the entire four days.

We are pleased to announce that, at the 9/16/2007 event committee workday and planning meeting, it was decided to provide an additional eight bunks, thus expanding the registration cap. These bunks will be in two wall tents built on a common wooden platform, with wood ends on each wall tent. Each wall tent will be equipped with a stove for heating and a brick chimney. For those who attended W64 2006: The new bunkspaces will be similar in construction to the site's hospital tent. During W64 2006, the "patient" in the hospital tent remained warm despite wind chills as low as -22 degrees F and wind gusts up to 60 mph. Just keep those stoves fed... :)

Indications are that demand for this event is strong. We recommend that anyone interested in attending put their registration and payment in the mail on Monday 9/24/2007, because it's likely that the 75 or so spaces available will "sell out" in the first few days. Registrations will be accepted on a first-come, first-served basis. When the event's registration cap is reached, additional registrants will be placed on a waiting list in the order in which those registrations are received accompanied by full payment; individuals on the waiting list will be admitted to the event (via pre-event notification only) when and if a registrant relingquishes a registration spot/bunk.

If you have questions about the registration process, please contact either the event coordinator, Scott Schotz, at hurrah_without_the_H@yahoo.com, or me at kobeirne@roadrunner.com.