Backyard Rink

This year, we took the plunge and set up our first backyard rink. It's been operational for about a week and it's been a big hit with the boys. I got a bit of a late start on it this year compared to others in our area, but that didn't seem to matter to the boys.

I took a day off from work and put up the walls to hold the water. Even though you can see snow on the ground, it was warm enough to work without a coat.

After the walls were up, a big liner was placed to hold the water. Then it took about 40 hours to fill it from a garden hose. Then we had to wait for it all to freeze good enough to skate on. With the ice ready to go, the boys tested it out by standing on it.

Jace, Jenner, and Chay are all grins as you can see. The shallowest end is about 3.5" deep. The deepest end is about 2.5 feet deep. The rink measures 32'x48'.

I put up a few worklights so the boys can use it at night. The lights also help with being able to remove snow and recondition the ice.

We had a first really good dumping of snow two nights ago and everyone pitched in to remove the snow from the ice. After that, with Chay at hockey practice, the twins and I tried out our homemade Zamboni. Here you can see Jace giving it a pull.



And as you can see, the skating is great!