New Hobby

I've taken an unintended two month vacation from the blog. Here's what I've been up to for most of that time:

Yep, that's me (and my Dad) ice skating in my own backyard! Actually, I've spent a lot less time skating and a lot more time building the rink.

My mom has been making backyard rinks since she was twelve. She and dad used to build ice rinks in our backyard when I was a kid, weather permitting. (Tremonton tends to be warmer than Logan, so we were only successful a few years when we had the right combination of enough snow and cold temperatures.)

Since we have this great pasture in the back of our house, I thought it would make a super-duper big ice rink. We got a lot of snow in December to make a good base, so right after the New Year, I set to work. I severely underestimated how much time and effort my parents put into the ice rinks! Plus, really I bit off more than I could chew because the pasture behind our house is at least twice as big as my backyard was at my parent's house.

To make an ice rink, you have to smoosh down all the snow. We used snowshoes and walked around and around and around in circles until it was all tamped down as flat as we could. This first step was tiring work. Imagine taking thousands of baby steps through the snow to try to stamp down every square inch. It was pretty exhausting. And it wasn't very flat...lots of footstep holes and bumps. (We've definitely got to find a better way for next year!) After that, you reel out the garden hose and spray it lightly to develop an icy crust on the snow. After the snow is all sealed with an icy crust, you can spray it heavier and build up a thick layer at least an inch thick. You spray, let freeze, spray and let freeze. The amount of time you have to wait in between sprayings depends on how cold it is. If its very cold (near zero) you can spray every almost constantly because the water pretty much freezes on contact. If its around 20 to 25, its best to wait an hour or two in between. That takes several sprays over a few days. This was a pretty slow process for us because we could only spray after dark because it would warm up to just over freezing during the day. So we could only spray it two or three times in the evening after the kids were in bed. (I know my mom used to get up and spray it during the night sometimes, but with a teething baby who was not sleeping well, we couldn't do that).

We did have one really cold evening near zero that would have been a great night to build it up rapidly, but unfortunately our garden hose froze SOLID and we spent most of the time late into the night trying to thaw it out. Its not easy thawing 150 ft of hose in a bucket of hot water! (Note to self: next time take it in and put it in the bathtub.) Shaun is such a good sport to help me out with my crazy ideas.

The weather has only been semi-cooperative, which has added to the difficulties of getting the ice ready to skate on. We've had two major thaws already, the latest one was when we had three days of RAIN last week! But, the base has survived, and we've been able to resurface each time. I'm hoping it lasts through most of February, but it has been a warmer than usual winter here in Logan.

You'd think with all the time and dedication it takes to get an ice rink like this going, I must been an Olympic skater. Sadly no. I can go forward and turn and that's about it. I used to be a little better as a kid, but its been too many years. Still, its lots of fun. You can't beat being out there in nature on a quiet evening. We even have flood lights on it so we can skate at night. I have very fond memories of skating in my backyard as a kid, and I wanted to pass on the family tradition to our kids. Here's what the boys do: