So I hacked Ma Nature in the ankle last week when I was able to deal with her thawing, then snowing, then bitterly cold temps as I prepped for what ended up being a good day of skating last Sunday.  But she retaliated this week with a mess of a snow storm on Wednesday.  It started out as heavy snow, then transitioned over to ice for the last few hours.  I wasn’t able to clear it Wednesday night, and to further degrade me, we got another two inches of fluffy snow yesterday.  So I grabbed one of my favorite Christmas gifts, the Yard Machines snow thrower from my dad, and went to work.  The thrower is not meant to be a heavy-duty slush slinger, but it did an admirable job, and I was pleased to see that it could cut through the layer of ice in the middle and tossed the snow into the night.  What I’m left with now is a thin layer of snow, and I’m hoping to flood that tonight and get the rink ready for another weekend skate.