Outdoor rink update

I guess its time to update the status of our little outdoor rink project.  I have been busy shovelling snow off it and I was really wondering if it was ever going to come together.  Today however Seth and I were able to finally skate on it.  It is curently -22 with the windchill so it was a short skate but we were there.  It is still a bit uneven and bumpy but I skated on much worse as a kid.

I have gotten into a good flooding routine now and have become efficient at first working out the kinks and then finally flooding the surface.  The biggest challenge is thawing my outdoor faucet so I can flood.  This requires about 10-15minutes with the heat gun everytime.  This is not bad since I have devised a way to set the gun up and leave it while I prep the hose, scrape the ice, or what ever I need to do that day.  Then once the water is running it only takes me about 10-15minutes to flood the small area and I have to roll up the hose and take it inside for the next flood.  If its really cold like today, I have to go through the whole process again, which is no fun, but after today has been worth it.

Seth's favorite thing to do was jump into the snowbanks.  He wasn't much interested
in practicing stickhandling.

With the weather forecast calling for some clear skies and cold temperatures I am hoping that by the end of the weekend the ice will be much smoother and nicer.  My lower end is great right now but I still need more ice to cover the bumps at the upper end.  Still a work in progress as it likely will be throughout the winter.

Keep your head up :P

Outdoor Rink Part III

Patients is needed when building an outdoor skating rink.  I have learned this over the last week.  That and a few other things about making a skating rink outside.  Just to be clear, I have never made ice indoors either so this has been a fun learning curve.  The location of my small rink is in my backyard which I thought was relatively flat, that was until I started putting water on it and it all flowed to one end.  I also learned that my yard drains quickly.  Since I didn't put a plastic cover down I put a great deal of water into the ground as opposed to on my ice surface.  This weighs heavily on my conscience as a watershed conservationist, but my son asked and I said we could, so what am I to do?

Don't get me wrong it is getting better but the weather is not as cold as I would like.  It is late into the evening before I can get the first flood on so the ice building has been slow.  Stay tuned though as I am sure I will get a skating rink before the end of winter.

Outdoor Rink?? Part II

If you follow the weather at all you likely know that we have had a run of warmer weather which slowed my progress on our outdoor rink.  Tonight however, it was a cold -9 celsius with the wind chill, so I headed out with "my hood up."  Get it?  "hood up"; "head up?"  I know.  Groan. 

With the snow this morning, I had to give the area a quick shovel.  I also compacted the snow layer by laying down some plywood and jumping on it.  Good thing I didn't make a big surface because my legs would have been sore after I was done with that task.  Once I got the water running again I flooded the surface twice with a good base forming again before I called it quits.   With a forecast of four more cold days before the temps start to rise again, I might get a good surface for a late evening skate by Thursday.  Maybe??
   
It was such a nice night out that I wandered out into the nearby field and laid on my back to look at the stars.  A great deal of jets were flying overhead tonight as well.  Being outside and enjoying the cold is rewarding and purifying.  My head clears, my body relaxes, and a calmness comes over me.  Flooding the ice is a simple task that allows my head to wander and I enjoy it.  This started off as a way for me to hopefully spend more time outside with my kids, but the reward will be more than that.

Outdoor Rink: Part One

The boys helped clear off the space for the small ice surface.

Today was a sunny, snowy day.  The temperature never came above freezing so I thought I would try making my first outdoor rink for Seth to enjoy.  I have no grand illusions of boards and nets and all the glam.  In fact the ice surface won't be that grand.  Seth, a friend of his, and I cleared off a space about 10m X 6m to start flooding.  After we cleared the space I took the boys to Bill's Corner store for a hot chocolate.  The boys then played in the fort for a while before we went in for lunch.



The boys enjoyed their hot chocolate while
sitting on the steps of the St. John's United
Church Center.



I didn't put down plastic, I didn't build boards.  Seth, the other boy, and I shovelled off the space and put the pile along the edge to create the boundary.  We did that this morning.  I then fought all day with my hose and the pipes trying to get the water to flow so I could flood the ice tonight.  It was a bit frustrating but finally I got the hose clear of ice.  Just a note for those who might find themselves in this same predicament; I put the hose in the bathtube with hot water.  It took about 10minutes to melt the ice out and I cleaned the hose while I was at it...oh and then the bath tube.

Under the stars and a cool night sky I applied a generous amount of water straight to the grass snow mix area that the boys and I had cleared off earlier in the day.  Now I will wait and see what it looks like tomorrow morning and hopefully flood again.



There is nothing better than a kid's rosy smile while enjoying winter.