Although the canopy had been planned out ahead of time, the actual engineering of it was pretty tricky. We layed the canopy out to get the location and direction just right:
The rope was threaded through the grommets and the measured, cut and painted poles were quick-linked into the corners:
The stakes were pounded in with the hopes we wouldn't hit any underground lines:
Much thinking and talking was going on about how this was going to work:
It was a very well thought out plan.
The wind was a problem. We're on top of a hill with nothing to come between us and the elements. The tarp was a sail:
We finally got it up to where it felt strong and stable and even looked pretty good:
The stage was the easy part. Rob and Dale had built plywood platforms and painted them black.
It was way easier to put together than the big stage we usually use:
We set up the two light trees and tested them and stood back to admire our work:
We were still home by 3-ish and Rob was about as tired as I've ever seen him. He was fast asleep within minutes of arriving home. About a half hour later, the guy who hired us to set this stage and canopy called with a desperate message that the corners of the canopy were tearing. Ugh. I had to wake up Rob and give him the bad news. He called the guy back and, apparently, the wind had been whipping up something fierce and was making short work of our tarp. It took us awhile to get back up there and we were hoping to be able to reinforce it with duct tape but we all decided that it was a safety issue and just wasn't worth salvaging. The main purpose of the canopy was to shade the sound equipment so Rob was able to rig a "wall" behind the stage that the customer would take down when the band started to play at dusk. I took a picture of the make-shift solution but it's on the internal memory of my camera which I can't access!!! It really didn't look too bad, all things considering. There wasn't another opportunity for Rob to nap- we had been invited to a going away party for Geoff, who we have gotten to know pretty well this summer. He'll be going away for about 3 years, but we won't know how long until he faces the judge on Monday morning. There's a story behind this but I haven't decided yet if it's ok to blog it. . . .We left the party just in time to run the kids to Grandma's house and head out to Caldwell for night number 3 with Straight Away. (Meanwhile, Dale and Jeff are headed to Mtn. Home to take down the stage and canopy. . .) Lori came out to hang out with me and help at the monitor board. It's always fun to have her company:
The band had great energy and we all had way too much fun:
Gary came out to help, too, and he and Lori showed off some moves:
The concert ended promptly at 1:00 a.m. and the fun was over. Time to take it all down. The four of us worked until about 3:30 a.m. and then left the rest to pack up on Tuesday.
We went to Shari's for breakfast and got home around 5 a.m. Dale must have finished up in Mtn. Home around the same time and, hopefully, Sunday will be a day of rest. We'll still have to drive up to Table Rock to pack up what's left of that event, but otherwise, it should be pretty uneventful.
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