As the Forum title says, time to Show Off Your Rink:

It has become tradition at my house that Canadian Thanksgiving Weekend is renamed as "Put Up Rink Weekend". Typically, the weather is agreeable and what better way to spend a long weekend but installing rink boards, taking in sunshine and drinking some pints. Thankfully PURW 2012 did not disappoint, it was a glorious weekend - from both standpoints - one for putting up the boards and the other for putting down some beers.

Here's a shot of partial construction of the East End in early October:



There was a lovely addition to the rink this year. A friend of mine whose wife works for the Senators was able to get me some signage that is not being used this year for some "unspoken" reason. With some brand new plywood on the middle boards and some fresh paint, it almost looks like a professional job:



By the end of the weekend, all the boards were up and about 4 yards of topsoil was added to the West end to help level things out. The rink measures a lovely 33'x72' this year. Special thanks to my beautiful wife for helping run the wheelbarrow back and forth while raking some leaves - she's a keeper for sure.

As I stated in another post, I run my rink off my well every year. I have yet to order water (can't justify the $$$ from the aforementioned wife yet she's still a keeper) so I heavily rely on Mother Nature for rainfall in November and early December then top it off with the well in time to allow the weather to turn it to ice. So when I heard that Sandy was going to hit Eastern Ontario on the weekend, I rushed home on Friday night after work to lay down the tarp and capture some of the 2-4" of rain that was forecast over the weekend. By 8pm, the new tarp was laid out and ready to capture some of that beautiful precipitation. Lo and behold, the only thing Sandy brought to Ontario was wind - lots and lots of wind. The rain - and very little of it - didn't land until Tuesday so rushing home on Friday night was not actually required - but at least that job is done and with a little help from the well the rink is starting to fill.



Now I just have to pick out all the leaves deposited in my rink by the high winds and that's my job this weekend.

All in all, I'm almost done and now I am hoping for a nice long cold winter so that we can forget about last year's debacle!

Kevin

The cold weather is coming - it's been below zero most nights here and the frost is getting thicker and thicker on the car every morning. The ice is starting to slowly form and gradually thicken. Here's a couple of shots from my roof:

Looking East:


Looking West:


Since the pictures have been taken, the tarp has been trimmed and folded down to about 8" high (did I ever get wet that day). The 1' high kick-boards will be placed over the tarp once the ice is ready in order to protect the tarp from skate blades, shovels and anything else that would rip it.

Keep that cold weather coming!
Kevin

November 30th - first official skate of the 2012-2013 Backyard Rink season: A NEW RECORD!

As I am leaving work, a friend texts me and asks if I was going to get a skate in tonight. I replied that I considered flooding just to see if it was good enough to skate on in the morning but the impending forecast was calling for warm weather again so I probably wouldn't bother. He said that it had to be before midnight so that it would count as a skate in November - tomorrow was no good. Anyway, I came home, grabbed my rink gear and found my rink-rake. I flooded from 6pm-7pm as there was a light coat of snow and the "ice" was in bad shape. Decided at 9:15 that the water had long enough to harden so on went the skates, grabbed a stick and some pucks and off I went. A couple of circles around the 'new' (extremely soft) ice, shot the puck a couple of times and a few more circles just to make some skate marks for evidence. The ice still needs a lot of work (some bumps and some leaves) but I'm calling it as the first official skate of the season.

Awesome! I've done the same a couple times in March, just to say we were there. Congrats!

Temperatures have been relatively cold the last couple of days thus slowly thickening the ice in the backyard. Last night, it hit -12'C/-10.5'F and it's supposed to remain cold today so I figured I would add a couple of coats of water. It was quite bumpy at the beginning but after 2 coats with the rinkrake (followed by a hose repair & a couple of heart-stopping loud cracks) then another resurface, it looked like glass. Hopefully we'll get in a family skate this evening before the temperatures rise to above freezing for the rest of the week.

Take these opportunities when you can!

I forgot to mention that as I was leaving the house for work this morning. My 12-year old daughter, still in bed because of the Ontario teacher strike, says to me, "How's the rink look Dad?". I replied that the rink was in good shape. Her immediate response was, "When do you think we can skate?". I told her, "Probably tonight if you want." The joy in her face as she said, "Alright!" makes all those hours of back-breaking labor feel like mere moments in time.

(Just had to share that with other backyard rink people who will appreciate it)

It was a beautiful night for the girls' first official skate of the season:



Let's hope for many more of these evenings!

Beautiful! Good stuff, Kevin.

Needless to say that after the girls were put to bed (content that they got to skate on the rink), I ensured that the wife was happy in front of the TV at which point I strapped on the skates, grabbed a couple of pints and had some alone time on the rink.

Awesome man. Great stuff!