Grande Finale' . . .

I know I've said it before but this was our busiest 2 weeks EVER. Zach asked me if this was our Grande Finale' for the summer. It would be except that we have a few more crazy, busy weeks to go before we can say summer is over. I will eventually post pics from each event but, for now, all I can do is do a quick review because it is all becoming a blur to me.

It started last Tuesday, August 17th with a set up at Wood River Cellars for the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band concert. . .

Before we could set up for that concert, however, we had to load two trucks and pack both of the stage trailers for a very long weekend. We set up all of the lights and truss on Tuesday and went back to the winery on Wednesday, the day of the concert, to set up the audio and crank it all up. When the band showed up and finally put their stamp of approval on it, Kurt took one truck and trailer and headed for Brundage. I finished up at the stage until the sound check and then I left to run a bunch of important errands that had to be done before we headed to the mountains for a 4-day festival.


Of course, as my luck would have it, I got another flat tire. Luckily I had Zach with me but un-luckily, my spare tire was stuck and wouldn't come down out from under my truck the way it is supposed to. Triple A to the rescue. . .


I still made it back out to Wood River in plenty of time for the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band concert. . .

I hired a few people to help us, so we were out of there by 1 a.m. Kurt was already up at Brundage Ski Resort in McCall setting up one of the stages we would need for the weekend festival and Rob and I pulled up the other trailer on Thursday for the biggest set up we've ever done. We hauled up pretty much everything we own in order to pull this off. . .

I'm happy to say that we really did pull this off. 2 days, 2 stages, continuous music. . .

On Friday, the music started at 5:00 p.m. and continued until about 3 a.m. . .


After about 3 hours of sleep, in the now-empty trucks, we were up at 6:30 a.m. to take care of things on the stage, had breakfast and rode the ski lift to the top and started the second day of music at noon. Saturday was another day of continuous music on two stages from noon until 3 a.m. There were four of us on this event since we hired our good friend, Micah, to help out. He's the drummer and sound engineer for the Army Band that we work with so he has plenty of experience. The four of us worked together really well and were never more than 10 minutes behind schedule (with festivals, it's very easy to get more than 30 minutes behind and never catch up). To say the least, it was a VERY long day. . .

We were up early on Sunday to take it all down. . .

We didn't get back into town until after 11 p.m. so Gloria ended up staying one more night at Grandma's house. I hate that school started so early this year. Not only is it our first experience with public school, but we are still so busy that I can't really experience it with her. I was still able to pick her up in the morning and take her to her very first day. I met her teacher and kissed her good-bye. Not surprisingly, she has found her niche, made a bunch of new friends and seems to be thriving. . .

In the meantime, Rob and Kurt left early Monday morning for Twin Falls to set up yet another stage for a Tuesday event. . .

I had plenty of catching up to do while they were gone. Bills to pay, phone calls to return, checks to deposit. Zach needed new glasses. . .

I needed new tires. . .


Rob and Kurt returned late Tuesday evening which left us Wednesday (my 20th anniversary) to unpack and repack the trucks for another busy weekend.

On Thursday, we set up the stage, canopy, lights and most of the audio in Caldwell for Worship in the Park. We also ran sound at Nampa Nights. . .

The weather has been especially unpredictable this summer and that can make our job even more difficult. We were unable to put the canopy across the roof until Friday morning due to wind gusts. That set us behind a little so we were still setting up when the local band arrived at 11:00 a.m. Most of the people were nice about it but there was some grumbling and that always gets under my skin. I think everyone that plays on our stage should spend a day setting it up so they can understand what goes into getting it ready for them to enjoy. . . Everything turned out really nice and the two main bands, Brenton Brown and Matt Mahr, had very timely sound checks in the afternoon.

There were more than a few surprises thrown at us and we were so tired that it was a stressful afternoon for me. I've never wanted to walk away from all of this so badly in my life. Obviously that's not an option so I hung in there and reminded myself that January is just around the corner and I'll have plenty of time to rest and get away from it all then. One of the issues we were having is that Kurt was supposed to leave during the concert to set up yet another stage in Boise but the monitor stuff got really confusing during the sound checks and I knew I wouldn't be able to keep it all straight even with Micah's help, who we had hired to run the monitor board for the evening. I decided that I would be much better off setting up the stage in Boise with Micah's help than giving myself a heart attack during the event. Micah was fine with the new plan and he and I headed for Boise at 7:00 and met the small crew I had hired to help us out there. Crew is good. Kurt's brother-in-law, Brian, has helped us a few times before and so has Micah. I also had Steph, Zach and Mike. With the exception of Mike, all of us had set up the stage and canopy before but this was the first time it's been set up without either Rob or Kurt. Everything went just fine and my crew was very capable. (Of course, I couldn't take any pictures since I was barely able to breathe in and out and put one foot in front of the other.) We finished up around midnight and Zach and I headed back out to Caldwell where Rob, Kurt and another 2-man crew were taking that set up down. We finished up around 3 a.m. and had to be at the festival in Boise at 7 a.m. to start setting up for a 9 a.m. start time. There wasn't time for the luxury of sleep. We unloaded the truck and re-loaded with everything we would need for Saturday's festival. . . Needless to say, it was another long day. Zero hours of sleep makes everything a little foggier but we managed to stay on schedule all day as bands played from 10 am to 6 pm. It was windy and overcast all day so that added to the misery. . .

In the meantime. . . . Rob had to run an acoustic show at The Egyptian that started at 8:30 p.m. so, once again, we had a very capable crew that helped us take down the festival set up from 8-10:30 p.m. I was home in bed by midnight and I literally walked in the door and fell into bed. I didn't even move until about 5 a.m. when I got up and brushed my teeth and went back to sleep. . .

And today, August 29th, is my baby's 18th birthday. . .

It was a week of craziness, sleeplessness, big milestones and chaos. But I survived. Barely.