- Dec 7, 2002 - Put up my rink boards today. New this year is a sheet of plywood, cut into two strips that are 2 feet wide each, and fastened to the fence at one end. This makes for cleaner end boards in the part of my rink that has the most water, and therefore the most pressure. Better for banging pucks off too!! I also fastened 2 x 4's to the 1 foot high boards I used along one side last year. This makes them straighter and sturdier. Last but not least I made a right-angle bracket out of wood and pounded a 6-inch nail through the bracket into the ground. This supported one area quite well, and in three other places along the 44 foot side, I used some steel brackets to attach the boards to my deck posts. Very solid. Will make the liner next weekend. Temps still not consitently cold enough for flooding yet.
- Dec 16, 2002 - Made my rink liner today. Making this year's liner was a little different in that instead of buying a roll of vapour barrier that is 10' x 100', cutting it in two and taping it together... this year I bought two rolls of 10' x 50'. Also, this year I called up our local Recreation Complex and asked to use the gym for a half hour to join my plastic. They were fine with it and it was a lot easier than in my garage. My son Brad assisted me with this as he continues to get more involved with the rink project each year.
- Dec 29, 2002 - Put liner in boards and started flood at 12:30pm...turned water off 8:30pm. Today was an awesome day, sunny and cold with NO WIND. As I have stated in my instructions...installing the liner on a day without wind is very important...you need to pick a day when the forecast is good, but just as important is a day when the wind is down. Today was such a day. Used Tom Sorenson's tip #49 and installed a couple of 2" x 4"'s in the corners of the shallow end. Will do the other end when ice is OK to walk on. Here is a pic from early in the flooding stage. Forecast is not the best but it is -10 C right now (9pm) so it should freeze pretty good tonight. Another day like today and we should be skating soon. Note for next year: There was about 1' of plastic left over, so leave more loose plastic in the shallow end next year.
- Jan 2, 2003 - Temps haven't been very cold. We have actually had some rain since I filled the liner. I haven't been able to walk on the rink yet without cracking it. It is -9 now and the forecast is cold so with any luck we will be skating on the weekend.
- Jan 6, 2003 - Finally skated on Saturday and again tonight. Ice was not the best on Saturday due to all the wet snow that we had, but after a half dozen light floodings, it was pretty good tonight. Concetrated on building up the low spots on the rink by only flooding those areas. This works quite well.(-2 C tonight)
- Jan 10, 2003 - Brutal week of weather. Snow, wet snow, rain storms, more snow ... you get the picture. Could have probably skated on Friday night but ice would not have been very good. (-4 C tonight).
- Jan 14, 2003 - The weather seems to be getting better (i.e. COLDER) although this year has not seen much below -10C and we are getting a lot of snow. It snows just about every day for a little while at least. We got a little skating in on Sunday but the ice was bad in places due to the rain/snow again. I have got a couple of floods in since Sunday and right now our rink is 90% perfect. Pretty level and almost all glass. (-8 C tonight).
- Jan 19, 2003 - The weather is absolutely brutal...snow, snow, snow. Skating twice today. Another 30cm snow storm coming...uh!!! Rink is basically perfect after a slow start. (-8 C Tonight).
- Jan 21, 2003 - Skating tonight. It is still snowing but we went out anyway. Had to clean the rink off every so often but it was still fun. We had 2 storms over this past weekend about 60cm of snow in all. Makes the rink and the area around the rink nicer. This is probably the best rink I have had to date. The ice is perfect, it is thick in both ends and the boards are great with the corners angled and all the snow piled high. Now only if it will last to the end of Feb ... then it will be the best one yet.(-8 C Tonight).
- Jan 27, 2003 - My apologies, I haven't been able to update the site much lately...busy with snow clearing (3 storms of 25cm, 30cm and 45cm in a week) and minor hockey. Will hopefully get to it soon. I have lots of pics to post...40 at least. Last skating day was Thursday the 23rd. Rink is clear and ice is in good condition, however it is raining tonight and will rain again tomorrow.(+2 C Tonight).
- Feb 2, 2003 - Boy has it been raining...2 days straight (second monsoon). Haven't skated for a week and a half. Rink is taking some major damage. Before I got a chance to check on it a lot of water had run off. 3 inches gone at least. Temps are not supposed to be cold for another few days. Didn't even get a month in yet. (+7 C ... yes +7 ... Tonight).
- Feb 6, 2003 - Finally the rain has stopped and the temps have dropped. I have started rebuilding the shallow end of my rink. About 75% of the rink was ready to skate on but I did a major flood (1 hour) and the shallow end was built up about an inch. Supposed to be cold again tomorrow night so there will be more flooding. Need to get the shallow end up to a couple of inches to support the kids. ( -10 C Tonight).
- Feb 11, 2003 - Got the shallow end up to about 2 inches. 5 light floodings over the last 5 days, plus the 1 hour flood did the job. Skating on Sunday (movie) and again on Monday night. Got the boom box out on the patio on Monday night...it adds a nice touch. Added a center ice face-off dot (used red paper) on the weekend. Also a nice touch. Rink is in great shape. Another storm today ... skating again tomorrow. ( -10 C Tonight).
- Feb 16, 2003 - Bitter cold temps and high winds the last few days. Windchill temps around -30 C, plus Stephanie and I have had a cold (I also fell and hurt my knee, bad, playing shinny with my boots on...bad idea), so we have stayed off our rink for the last several days. Wed the 12th was the last skate. Supposed to be better tomorrow. ( -16 C Tonight).
- Feb 19, 2003 - Skating twice this week (Mon the 17th and tonight) so far, and the weather has been excellent. The temps have gone up to something sensible and the ice is perfect. I have been covering my red face-off dot with snow during the day so the sun won't melt the ice in that spot. Here is a wide angle shot of my backyard. ( -12 C Tonight).
- Mar 6, 2003 - Skating has been on hold for almost 2 weeks now. Between snow mixed with rain, hockey tournaments, sick children and insanely cold windchill temps, skating was not in the picture at all. My rink took some heavy damage on the night of Feb 23rd. It started by snowing just enough to make a mess and then it rained for about a couple of hours and then it got really cold, really fast. By the time I got up in the morning and checked on it, "concrete snow" had formed all over the rink. The beautiful surface had been ruined. The only thing that would fix it was more rain...lots of rain. We finally got that rain on Monday the 3rd of March. I have my rink almost back to skating condition but it needs a few light floods to make it smooth again. This is really late in the year for me to still have as much ice as I have. I am going to try and get a few more skates on it and this will officially be the most successfull rink I have ever had. ( -12 C Tonight).
- Mar 16, 2003 - Skating today!! This officially makes our 2003 rink the most successfull to date. It has lasted the longest (10 weeks so far) and the ice has been quite good for most of the time. Plus even though it has been a real pain cleaning up all that snow...our rink really looks nice with all the snow around it. The forecast is excellent and the ice is thick, so we will probably have our rink for another week at least.( -20 C Tonight).
- Mar 17, 2003 - Skating AGAIN tonight!! Learned another lesson tonight though. It is important to take it easy skating on "less than perfect" ice. Brad tripped in a weak spot an fell head long into the fence. He was OK but shaken up quite a bit. Snow storm in the forecast again. This may be it, as rain and snow are also in the forecast. I can see the daytime temps in the forecast starting to climb :o( ( -18 C Tonight).
- Apr 13, 2003 - Never did skate after March 17. The weather has only been good for melting ice these days. Oh well, it was good while it lasted. I plan on getting some more boards over the summer and painting them white to cut down on the melting in March when the sun is higher in the sky. The corner where the fence is on both sides takes a real beating when the temps go up a little. White boards would really help with this. (-2 C Tonight).
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