Was going to say, always great to see another Minnesotan around the forums here, but then I got to that "Go Bulldogs" line and thought twice. Oh well, at least it wasn't "Go Sioux", so welcome to the site Bob. ;-) Actually a few fellow Twin Cities residents lurking around the for...

I've used relatively inexpensive 24" x 24" floor mat tiles that I found at Sam's Club before. They aren't going to last forever, but I have a bunch that are now going on 4 seasons that cover the floor of my tiled screen porch (equipment/skate storage) across the patio and then across about...

Fortunately our "warm-up" last weekend was pretty short lived here in the upper Great Lakes area, but I can certainly empathize as the past two seasons have seen a couple of lengthy warm periods where you feel helpless, angry, and downright irritable while you watch your pride and joy slow...

I'd have to agree, at $15 hard to beat. I built my own out of PVC years ago, but I'm sure I'm into it for more than the $15 as they do get brittle and I've had to replace various sections and the valve a couple of times over the years. As for hoses. I agree with Joe that usually, you can't beat a 10...

I hear you. Leaves are definitely the bane of our existence. Despite my perhaps OCD tendency to suck up every stray leaf that falls in my yard every fall, there's nothing you can do about your neighbors, lol. I've been trying to come up with a similar solution for a couple of years and unfortunately...

Good luck- hopefully that hosing off at least cleared up some of the debris for you. I've blasted my ice surface with the pressure washer before trying to get stubborn leaves and pine needles pried loose with limited success. Mostly I felt that I was at least trying to do something, not sure how eff...

Beautiful. Know I'm not the only one that is likely jealous of your flat yard and being able to get that size of rink only having to use 2x6's!

Hope you didn't have any problems with the snow out East yesterday.

Pretty much exactly what happened to me last year. Had 3 weeks of great skating after the initial flood and then encountered the inevitable mid-December warm-up which melted a decent amount of ice. Came back from a business trip to find my shallow end liner exposed and down about 6" in my deep ...

Yes and Yes. I've been carrying an additional umbrella policy for the past 6 years or so just for the added peace of mind liability-wise. When I originally called the insurance company and told them, they seemed less than interested as long as it wasn't any type of business or commercial venture. Ac...

Likely doesn't matter, but in my old house, I used hot water straight from our utility sink. I had a 150+ foot run of hose out to the rink though so tended to cool off some by the time it got there. Only drawback to really hot water was that you needed to keep the hose moving. Any excess hose lying ...