"This is the fourth year for our rink, though last year it was not operational due to warm weather in Michigan.  The dimensions are approximately 50' x 100'.  The rink is cut out of some woods behind our yard, cleared and levelled using mostly hand tools, no heavy machinery (only a rear-tyne tiller).  It sits down in a ravine next to a creek, which supplies the water via pump (this accounts for the brown tint to the ice).  

The rink has been expanded twice to its current size.  It has full-size hockey boards on one end (with rounded corners) comprised mostly of treated 4' x 8' sections of 1/2" and 3/4" plywood (1/4" on the corners) attached to wood fenceposts sunk about 18 inches in the ground and reinforced in back with heavy metal fence t-posts driven diagonally into the
ground.  The other end has about 18" high plywood boards also with rounded corners, and the side boards are 2" x 10" or 12" treated boards.  

The side and shallow end boards are secured to 24"-30" sections of fence t-posts converted into stakes, which are sunk at least 12" into the ground (metal stakes are much better than wood as they can be driven into frozen ground).  

Fencing was added this year above the full-size boards to minimize the loss of pucks into the woods.  For night skating, two 500-watt halogen
lights are affixed to mature trees overlooking the rink at a height of about 20 feet, one above the end with full-size boards and the other on the side of the rink.

We use 6-mil plastic lining around the edges only, stapled to the boards and extending inward about 18-24 inches from the board edges.  About a half-inch to one inch of finely ground and packed dirt covers the edge liner before the first hard freeze.  We then wait for the ground to freeze at least 4-6 inches deep.  All snowfall prior to the pumping is removed to prevent any delay in the ground freezing.  Then water is pumped out of the creek using a 2" pump.   

Tarps are laid down temporarily to prevent the pumped water from thawing the ground as it flows out of the end of the hose. We try to wait until a night when the temperatures are in the single digits to pump the water, as the faster it freezes the less chance for any ground seepage or leaks to occur. 

The rink surface has been levelled to within 2 inches to minimize the volume of water needed (and thus pressure for seepage).  Some years it takes a secondary pumping if seepage occurs; only one time did severe leakage occur and this was due to a weak section of side board.  Once the base is established, it may take as few as 1 or 2 hosings to get a skateable surface.  We need 250' of hose to get water down from the house.  We usually resurface the ice by spraying after every other skate session. 

Our kids (5) and their friends typically skate in the day during the week and the adults after dinner. When the boys and girls skate together, hockey competes with figure skating for the ice surface. On weekends, the men sometimes have 2-on-1 or 2-on-2 scrimmages.  Here my nephew Danny is scrimmaging with some fellow students from Michigan State University.

Our longest skating season was 3 years ago, when we skated for almost 2 months solid.  This year, we've been skating pretty
much nonstop since mid-January."

Great job and thanks for the pic Robert.