Behind the scenes…

Do you happen to remember a post I wrote about the old woman getting her pig over the stile? I drew a parallel between the elaborate manipulations she had to go through make it happen and the dramatic conundrum of putting together a beaver festival. You probably thought I exaggerated?

I had a dream this year of amplified sound that could be heard all over the park just like a real event. Wouldn’t it add cohesion and joy to the event? I asked the city for electricity and was told that whatever power lurked in the park to control sprinklers and operate night lights was not for us to use.

Never mind, undaunted I found portable solar generated power that we could rent and talked them into making an affordable contract with us. Then, feeling excited and proud of myself, I went looking for someone to handle the audio. My first choice was obviously the talented John Koss who had donated the audio service for Earth Day for more years than either of us can count. But he’s a richly talented man who does theaters and events all over the south bay and I wasn’t holding my breath.

To my delight John said YES and agreed to add the Martinez Beaver Festival to his long list of events. GREAT! I introduced John to our rep at the solar company to figure out exactly what they needed. Then I told all our musicians the good news. I was so excited!

Not so fast, little girl.

The whole thing ran into danger when the solar company suddenly said our event insurance needed a special rider to protect their property and the company handling  our insurance said such a rider would cost us an extra 1000 dollars!
Fortunately, the head of ISI stepped in (Dr. Loren Cole) and gallantly said that in 37 years of organizing events he’s never heard of a rider being required. After that challenge the insurance and solar company were able to sit down and work out some mollifying language in our existing (250.00$) event policy that the city requires us to hold. And it’s official. We will have amplified sound this year at the cost of s 200.00 rented solar truck.

Whew!

Then our talented charm designer Mike Warner of Wildbryde gave me a scare. He’s a very busy man and his ouzel tags are getting more popular every day. When he finally had time to work on our designs and pricing, I was alarmed to se the figures were twice what we paid last year! When I asked about the cost jump he said that a lot of his labor had been  donated before and he was now too busy to give us the same deal. Ack!

To make matters worse the charms used to be totally paid for by a grant from Kiwanis, but Kiwanis’ new rules meant we got a smattering of donation from them this year. We brainstormed about pricing and he was eventually able to cut some corners and offer us slightly fewer charms for about the same price. Since this year we’re doing silver tone I spent yesterday counting up our old silver charms which should be able to round things out a get complete sets for 120 kids, 25 adults and all of Worth A Dam.

Whew again!There were sadly many more of these but their resolution was too pedestrian and tedious for even me to write about here. Suffice it to say that when I wasn’t at my real job or solving a crise du jour I was watching this several times during the week.

Surprised, she reaches in her apron pockets and finds a tiny crust of bread which she lays in front of the mouse. He nibbles appreciatively, then agrees. And after all that asking the mouse begins to gnaw the rope. and the rope begins to hang the butcher, and the butcher begins to kill the ox, and the ox begins to drink the water, and the water begins to put out the fire, and the fire begins to burn the stick, and the stick begins to beat the dog, and the dog begins to bite the pig, and the pig decides to finally go over the stile…

 And that little old woman really does make it home that night!