[Sca-cooks] Feast nightmare

[ranvaig at columbus.rr.com]

>that no matter how bad they think things are, it could be worse. And 
>as told by these stories, things
>usually work out.
>
There was my first feast at the Irish Festival, in the Living History 
area. This is early August, usually Pennsic Landgrab weekend.  I took 
over on short notice, had a week to research 10th century Irish food, 
and buy everything.

Thursday during setup, my daughter closed the back van door on my 
thumb and broke it.  The door locked on my thumb and wouldn't open. 
My husband was at the driver's door and started running to see what 
all the shouting was about.  I was shouting for him to hit the door 
release switch first.  Fortunately the left thumb, and I'm right 
handed.

We were in a new location at the festival, and the kitchen was rather 
far from everyone else. My expected help was busy on other tasks.  I 
couldn't leave the kitchen unless I flagged someone down to keep the 
public out of the fire and knives.

Feast was planned for 2pm Sunday afternoon.  By noon, I was feeling 
very unwell. The ambient temperature was over 100 and I'd been 
cooking over a wood fire for three days.  I had a 103 fever and a 
blinding headache. An abscessed tooth opened up and was draining. 
I'd done too much with my broken thumb and it ached terribly.

I finally had help, but and couldn't figure out what to do next.  I 
hadn't written down enough of my plans and was feeling too fuzzy to 
remember them.  I was way behind how much I thought would be ready by 
then and panicking because we were going to be late.

Then diarrhea hit.. I wont go into details, but handling food was not 
a good idea any more.   I saw the ER take someone away on a 
stretcher, and decided it was time to leave while I could walk out.

And... it really did work out. People pulled together and got food on 
the tables.  Late, but I'm told it was really good, even if they 
didn't find the salmon.  I was home soaking in a cool tub.

I've done three successful feasts there since then.
Ranvaig