I built this bad boy last semester and have been using it nearly every day since! I'm originally from Arizona, but playing in my backyard has always been a dream. Thanks for all the help!

We did it college style (low budget!):

Looks awesome! Haha college budget is the way to be! my first year was old telephone poles that were stacked in the woods behind my house when I bought it and a few areas where I stuck plywood on the ground with stakes behind it where the ice ended up being 22" thick!! (leveled out quite a bit since)
It was not pretty but the ice was so thick I was skating on about 40% of the rink in april that year with shorts and a T-shirt! (well shaded area)

My first boards where pallets that were used for carrying vegetables. I bought them for $1 a piece and spent two days before Christmas cutting most of them in half with a Skil-saw. Bought a cheap 50x100 blue tarp off eBay and used packed snow inside and under the tarp to make my base. It was still the best backyard rink I ever skated on to that point in my rink making career. I still have a couple of those pallets hanging around the yard to stack my boards and tarps on. The rest found their final destination in my firepit.

For those wondering, pallets that have been used for carrying vegetables never lose that rotten veggie smell even after years of sitting in snow and ice or even when they are burning into ash. Awful smell! Blech. :-)

PS - nice choice of stick, loved the S19s.