Here in FNQ, there are two seasons- the hot and the even hotter!
And that even hotter season? Well apart from being an absolute sweat box, we also have cyclones and heavy rainfall to deal with. All in all, not a great time to hold an outside event. So not surprisingly, we are quite a seasonal business. We work very hard for 6 months of the year (May-Nov) and then we work a lot less hard for 6 months- and frankly it works great!
But, storing things for 6 months of the year isn't great for their longevity. So there's one last job we always have to do before enjoying a bit of downtime, and that's wintering our mobile bars.
The ironic thing here is, winter is our busiest period so it’s actually during the sweaty Far Northern summer where I ‘winter’ my mobile bars. But no-one would understand me if I mentioned ‘Summering’ them would they?
Anyhow, come the last event of the ‘season’ I winter my bars. While this is not an absolute necessity I do find that going through this process, makes my re-opening that much easier come next season or should I book a last minute event (it does happen!), I know my bars are ready to go.
Things on my wintering to do list:
1) Clean- I don’t do a super deep clean here because I live in the tropics so during the summer mould will grow whether I have deep cleaned or not, so I just do a normal clean to get rid of any stickiness, knowing that when I re-open a deep clean will likely be required!
2) Wrap glassware. We use only glassware here at The Bedford Bar and while we have beautiful, heavy duty boxes to protect them from damage, the boxes do not always protect the glasses from insects. So I wrap all the boxes in a heavy duty, food safe cling wrap to keep the critters out. I always wash them when we re-open (our built in glasswasher makes this easy!) but it's even easier if they aren't full of bugs to begin with.
3) Wipe out all appliances. Clean the beer lines (again).
4) Spray for bugs. Surface boundary spray around the inside of the doors and I hide some cockroach traps under the equipment. Again, I live in the tropics, and the bugs get in everywhere!
5) Clear out the cab- spray for bugs (again) and search under the seats for my husbands lost receipts… Yes this happens so frequently it’s on my to do list (guess who does the books, hint: it’s not him)
6) Wash Vehicles Exteriors- I give the outside of my trucks a quick wash, to make sure there’s nothing which, if left for a couple of months will damage the paintwork! And then they’re wrapped up in dust covers. Worth noting here that my trucks all live in undercover sheds.
And that's it! I would love to say that I'll now sit back on a beach in Bali for 6 months but the truth is that there's a lot of planning, admin and behind the scenes stuff that goes into a busy winter of weddings so while I may have retreated to a cool air conditioned spot, laptop in tow, to wait out the summer there will still be a lot of work happening!
So if you need me before April 2024 (which is gonna come around fast you better believe!) I'll be right here, planning another bigger and better year and show stopping events!
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