Monday and Tuesday, July 27th and 28th Concert Prep for Vale. . .

We really didn't have any recovery time before the next BIG concert. Just getting ready to pack for the concert was exhausting. Rob still had a case to finish up before we could leave and he was finally able to put the finishing touches on it. It turned out just beautiful, as always. . .

I know I've said it before but this concert really is our biggest show EVER. It required pretty much everything we had and plenty of pre-planning. The group travels with an LD (lighting director) so we had to have specific gel colors. We continue to get more and more organized (even though sometimes it doesn't feel like it) so I took some extra time to get my gels in order.

I know it may seem like a small thing but for so many years we have flown by the seat of our pants just trying to get the next thing done without always finishing up the last thing so wrapping up a project like this gives me great satisfaction. . .

It was a team effort with Kurt getting the ball rolling, Tyler cutting and sorting and, a few weeks later, Hailey alphabetizing everything!!! It's a beautiful thing.


There were plenty of other things that needed to be done including building legs for the portable stage decks that needed to be added to our stage to make it even bigger. . .

This part was almost overlooked so Rob and I ended up drilling these out very late on Monday (ok, very early on Tuesday!!). . .

The show also required our smaller stage decks for stage risers and front-of-house platforms so we ended up building a couple more on Tuesday. . .

The portable stage we used is the same one that we sold to The Egyptian that we built and used for several years before we built the stage trailer. The decks are solid and in good shape but are heavy and no fun to set up. Each deck has individual legs that have to match up perfectly for a good fit. . .

Rob and Tyler spent a good amount of time making sure the portable stage was ready. . .


We added 11 decks so we needed to round up every single c-clamp we could find in order to attach the portables to each other and to the stage trailer. . .

The single legs that we drilled out had to be welded and finished. . .

We usually manage to throw in a little bit fun in spite of all the hard work. . .

It was finally time to load the trailer and the truck on Tuesday evening. . .

We realized at the end of the day that we couldn't fit it all in so poor Kurt would have to make a second trip (and as it turned out, a total of 3 trips back to Boise from Vale!!) to get the rest on Thursday. . .

We still weren't ready to leave for Vale when we left the shop at 2 a.m. . . .