home made ice rink

[jigglestick]

the youngins each got new ice skates for christmas this year.
so ma dug out her old figure skates to go show them how
I have to admit, she did pretty good, as did the kids for there first time out.
now they have gon twice and are getting the hang of it.
the problem is driving ten miles to town just to skate for an hour each day.

we took the shovels out to deer lake and cleared off a spot close to the beach for easy access. then I took this little twelve volt pump I have and a deep cycle battery to flood the ice with. that was taking a while but we were getting it done.
I drilled several holes around the perimiter for access to places beyond the reach of the pump.
that was taking forever. then while drilling another hole, I realized how much watter was coming up from the turning auger blade...AH HA!!
so I drilled a hole inside the rink area and let her rip.
the water pumped up and gallon upon galon of water flowed up and out of the hole onto the rough uneven lake ice surface . doing this several times in a half dozen locations left the rink flooded and my tenner shoes totaly drenched, but we now have a rink!!
I will have to flood it maybe once or twice more, but she is going to be nice!
there is parking  there and a place to sit down and tie up your skates.
all we could ask for. I can even put a fish house there for a warming shack if I get the notion.
now, take a nice afternoon, or an evening after supper and a couple coleman lanterns out for a great time on the ice for them youngins, thre minutes from the house  :)

[Mayfly]

I kinda have a related question maybe some of you could help answer......

My daughter is almost 2 she is 20 months to be exact. Well I am off to buy her some skates this weekend. My question is...do you think I should start her on Hockey skates or Figure skates??

I played hockey all my life and I tried figure skates once and fell on my face.

What do you guys think?

[jigglestick]

my wife says figure skates. I say wait til their out of diapers first.

[Mayfly]

I say wait til their out of diapers first.

No way..I'm going to strap on a helmet and some pads and let her go!

I think after some time with her Dad on the ice she will pick it up...I hope. Heck maybe it will scare the crap out of her but this one is wild...i think she'll like it.

How come figure skates? Are they harder? I want whatever one is harder......that would have to be figure skates right?

[jigglestick]

not sure why she said figure skates. do they even make hockey skates that small? ???

[JohnWester]

yes, they do make hockey skates that small...

No, to figure skates...

yes, get her out there.  I have my 4 year old son out there... either use a folding chair for them to hold on to while they learn or make something like a walker out of pvc pipe for them to hold on to.  that's what I did, the pvc pipe thing.

[A-Rod]

I've seen some 2 and 3 YO's skating circles around 5 - 10 YO's cuz their parents got them started early.

Jiggle- When it cools back down enough here in the cities Im going to have to try that auger thing.  We have a pond in the back yard that froze over like glass when the first and only cold snap hit but the warm weather has made the ice totally crappy.  I was trying to think of a way to get'er smoothed over again.  Sounds like this would be a possibility.  Are there pots where you drilled or do they freeze over nice?

[jigglestick]

A-rod, the problems as I see, is, the ice usualy floats higher than the water level.
this causes a hole in the ice maybe a half to three quarters an inch deep.
 there is a fairly easy solution. either drill to the perimeters of the skating area and /or once they freeze over fill them with water, or the next time you flood the area, use a different hole location. the problem there is you can end up chasing your tail, creating new problem areas each time you drill.
the way I will do it now, is drill only around the perimeters.
another thing to consider, is if you flood using this method while it is fairly warm, the water is going to drain back down the holes somewhat creating a hollow under some of the areas of newly frozen skim ice.

it might be a while here before I can re-flood again. it is to darned warm.
I dont think it got below 30 degrees last night.

some single digets would be ideal for flooding. it would freeze almost as fast as it flooded.

knee high boots are recomended.

this may seem like a hassel, but consider having to rent a submersable pump and dragging a generator down to the lake then back up the hill each night. :(

the next time I flood, I am going to walk the inside of the perimeter and pack the snow, to keep water from flowing freely to the outside. then I am going to drill only around the inside edge of the snow bank, keeping a scoop shovel handy to barracade the hole once I stop pumping this will keep the flow back to a minimum, keeping the water where we want it.
I will drill as many holes as needed to effectively cover the area I am trying to flood.

one more thing i forgot to tell you, is before you start pumping, after you have drilled the hole, clear away the shlush and ice chuncks as best as you can. you dont want them to become part of your rink.

have fun, and make sure the kids help you :)