This year was somewhat of a success. I erected some fencing in the area where I always make my rink and used plastic again. We got some snow around Christmas, and on January 1st I got to work. There was no wind that day so I leveled out the snow (more on that later) and placed some boards all around the perimeter. I fastened the boards to the fence in the corners and joined them together everywhere else. I then laid the plastic (20'x50') in the rink "bed", stapled it to the fence and wood, and let the water run for about 7 or 8 hours. I ended up with 6" of water in the deepest end and 4" in the shallowest end.
That night and the next day were pretty cold...around -15 Celsius (5 F). The ice was frozen enough by 4:00PM on Jan 2 that my children could skate on it without breaking the ice. I was too heavy. That was one of the quickest times any of my rinks were skated on. It was a good thing we skated right away...this winter was consistently wet!! We had 2 or 3 days of rain just about every week. It would get cold again on the weekends but it would take me 2 days to get the ice back to skating condition again. It was very frustrating.
To further elevate the frustration, after so much rain, the snow that I used to level out the base had melted and the plastic dropped in one corner and a lot of the water ran off...and because the plastic had dropped I couldn't fill the water to the level I originally had. I had to settle for 4 inches in the deep and 1 inch in the shallow end, for the rest of the winter. The moral of the story is: DON'T USE SNOW TO LEVEL OUT A BASE!!
We did get to use the rink for about 6 or 7 weeks though...after that we had a lot of rain and really mild temps. The big bonus this year was that my 3 and 1/2 year old daughter learned how to skate on this years rink. She took right to the ice and was skating after her 3rd or 4th time out. I couldn't keep her off it...she used it more than my son. That alone was enough reason to make another rink next year.
Here is a picture of 2000's rink:
My Boy and Girl!!
20' x 45'
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Last Updated on Sept 1, 2001