Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Make-Or-Break Time: Update

My 3-part plan is still in effect. Here is a picture I took yesterday:

Except for some high-ground spots, the base managed to survive the rain and the high temperatures. The temperatures didn't drop low enough for long enough last night (or today), and we got a real good dose of mixed rain & snow after this picture was taken. As a result, the rink is kind of an almost-slush pool right now. Good news, though: the forecasted low for tonight is -10. That should freeze whatever is on there, and one or two floods should be enough to give us at least a good part of the rink to skate on.

Two more things you might notice about this picture: (1) the brook in the background now consists of fairly deep water sitting on top of the ice. That should parlay into a more-than-decent skating surface...for a little while. And, (2) there is absolutely no snow in the back yard. Yes, this is late January in northern New Brunswick. I get the feeling that it is going to snow here for the entire month of February.

Monday, January 25, 2010

Make-Or-Break Time

The crazy "winter" weather in this part of the world continues. My rink surface is just a bit less than 50% covered in very good ice. And now we are down to crunch time...the moment of truth...the TSN Turning Point.

The above Weather Channel forecast says that we could have 10-15 millimetres of rain over the next little while. Environment Canada is calling for 15-20 millimetres of rain, with temperatures spiking at plus 6. Both authorities think that temperatures will drop again after Tuesday night. Either forecast could result in an absolutely great flood for the rink, or it could be back to the ol' drawing board - again - if the base melts.

Currently, there is a little bit of snow on the rink, courtesy of a snowfall we received earlier today; also, right now we are getting some light freezing drizzle. So, based on the forecasts, here is my 3-part plan: (1) Scrape off the snow and "frozen drizzle" at the precise moment that the rain begins to fall. (2) Watch the rink anxiously as the rain falls and the temperature rises (while also watching tonight's episode of 24). (3) Hope that the base doesn't melt and that the rain sits there long enough to freeze.

Alas, the window of opportunity is closing. If the rink (such as it is) is ruined after tomorrow night, then I'll be hard-pressed to build it back up. Our skating season this winter might only be a day or two in mid to late February...which, don't get me wrong, is still better than nothing. For now, however, let's just hope that my 3-part plan works.

Sunday, January 17, 2010

Frozen Bodies (…of Water): Part I

The lazy sibling of the backyard rink is the frozen pond, lake, brook, or river. It’s nothing personal; I’ve enjoyed skating on them, as you will see in future entries. In fact, the great pictures just below the blog header and the one included in this post (which were taken by my wife through our dining room window) show me and my son having some fun on the brook behind our house.

It’s just that my problem with frozen bodies of water is that they are (for the most part) not easily accessible, unreliable, and dark - most of the time. I’ll use “my” brook as an example, but if you have the right conditions then you should probably just be thanking the ice gods for your good fortune.

“Not easily accessible” because unless you have the perfect property, chances are it’s tough to find a skateable natural facility close to where you live. Even though that brook is right behind our house, we need to climb down a rough bank and then slip and slide along some slanted and broken-up ice along the shore to get to our destination.

“Unreliable” because the ice is often uneven, bumpy, and cracked. Since we bought this house in 1996, I could probably count on one hand the number of times that the ice on the brook was suitable for skating. This year is the exception, however. I have managed to find some patches of smooth-ish ice, and we have skated on it twice already. One reason that we haven't been out more often is that the temperatures have been very low and there is always (at minimum) a breeze out there in the wide open. (Yesterday, after about 1.5 hours out there, the wind really picked up and was strong enough to blow us across the ice.) Time once again for Backyard Ice Math©:
low temperatures + wind = –30 degree wind chill = X
X + young kids = crying to go in after five minutes
We might get another shot at it, as there is still unbelievably not much snow in the forecast and the rink is still a work in progress. By this time of the winter, the brook is usually buried in several feet of wind-packed and frozen snow that is stuck like glue to the ice surface.

My final problem with the frozen body of water is the inherent darkness. If you live in sub-zero climes then you know that there are only a few hours of daylight in the winter. Skating on bumpy and crevasse-infested ice when you can’t see anything is not recommended. The second reason that we haven't been out on the brook more often this winter is that when school and their other activities are done, it is very rare for the kids to be home in the daylight, leaving only selective weekends for skating (and then you have a Backyard Ice Math© situation, as above). The nice thing about the backyard rink is how relatively easy it is to light ‘er up…you can see some of my elaborate lighting system in the pictures.

If you have access to the perfect frozen pond, lake, brook, or river, then just go out and have yourself some fun. And, stay tuned for Part II in this series, where I “compete” for the World Pond Hockey Championship. An obvious future Part - a post on the Rideau Canal - will just have to wait until I get the honour of skating there!

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Dear Rebecca,

Thanks for following my blog. I know that you think it is “weird” that your ol’ man is blogging, but “whatevs.”

I am aware that two of my three children are pictured on this blog, and that you are the one that isn’t. When you pointed out this fact, my poignant response was “go for a skate sometime and maybe you’ll get on there.”

Now, here is the simple truth: sightings of UFOs are rare. Sightings of Sasquatch are even rarer. Sightings of you on skates are…well, you get the idea.


We all know that you prefer to spend your time immersed in water in its liquid form, instead of balancing on thin strips of metal on frozen water. And that’s more than OK…it’s great!

We are all proud of your swimming achievements, and we are very pleased that you have found some kind of athletic activity that you enjoy so much. I hope that you get as many years of fun from swimming as I have from skating and hockey.

Love,
Dad

Sunday, January 10, 2010

A First Time For Everything...Twice!

I mentioned a couple of posts ago that I was raking the rink last weekend. That was the first time I've ever had to do that, and I checked with the Outdoor Rink Guru (a.k.a. Dad), and he never had to do that. I've also mentioned in my previous posts that I've been considering moving snow from the front yard to the back.

Well friends, the photo at the left shows another first that can be listed for the 2009-10 edition of my rink. That wheelbarrow is, of course, parked in my driveway. If you try hard enough, you can see the excavation area just to the left of the driveway marker/reflector. I couldn't use the snow from the banks close to the driveway because they are rock solid.

I did this work under the cover of darkness for two valid reasons: the first, and most obvious reason is that it lowers the possibility of my neighbours seeing me dig holes in the snow in my front yard and cart it off to my back yard, and then confirming suspicions that I've completely lost my mind. The second reason is that I was hoping that the real N.E. Patriots might show up for their playoff game today; by the time I realized that it wasn't going to happen and got geared up to go outside, it was dark.

OK then, now it's time for the first edition of Backyard Ice Math: a couple loads like this + some quality time with the hose + cold temperatures (now minus 12) = a good start to repairing the base of the rink.

Friday, January 8, 2010

Wishful Thinking

I can't believe I'm saying this, but I'm in desperate need of some snow in order to get any work done on the rink. I mentioned in the previous post that I'll need to move the snow from the front yard to the back yard. Well, I'm not sure that is even an option, because there really isn't very much snow in the front yard at all. Plus, the little bit of snow that is there is quite dirty, courtesy of those great winds and rains we had a while back.

So, I'm back to waiting for a nice little snow fall, just a few inches. Let's check the ol' Weather Network forecast...

Wow. This is January, right? Un-friggin'-believable. Where's all the snow?

Looks like my rink will have a base made from brownish slush.

Wednesday, January 6, 2010

Introduction

While I was working on my backyard rink the other day, I was thinking that an account of my progress would be a good blog topic. When you are standing outside in sub-zero temperatures pouring water from a garden hose, your mind tends to wander.

When I was a kid, we lived in the country and my father made a rink every year for about a dozen years. My brother and I spent the most time on it, but the only other neighbourhood kids our age - four boys - spent a good chunk of their winters on it too. It was a great rink, about twice the size of mine. Dad had a small fish pond nearby, and flooded the rink with a sump-pump and water from the pond. A few years ago he said to me, "you should build a rink." So I did.

The backyard rink is, to me, more special than a frozen pond, lake or river because of the preparation efforts. I always had a sense of the work involved - shoveling, scraping, flooding, plus the off-season work - but I didn't appreciate it as much until I started building my own. I'll chronicle these other aspects of my rink (and my Dad's) in future posts, but for now I'd like to talk about my 2009-2010 rink.

Christmas break is always a good time to start the rink...temperatures are low enough and there is usually enough snow to build a good base. So I got a pretty good start until January 2, when the temperature jumped up to plus 3 with rain and wind gusts up to at least 70 km/h. Since then, the temperature has stayed between 0 and +4, and we've had about 10 millimetres of rain. I was out a couple of times standing ankle deep in water, raking branches, cones, and all kinds of crap off the rink. So, no more snow, and no freezing temperatures. So, I consider myself lucky that my rink looks no worse than this:

The future doesn't look too bad, temperature-wise, but I need some more snow to re-build parts of the base...those wind gusts I mentioned earlier blew all the snow to the front yard. There isn't any appreciable snowfall in the forecast for maybe a week, so it looks like I'll be trucking the snow from the banks and drifts in front of the house to the backyard pretty soon.

It's lots of work, but it is all worth it when the kids (and, of course, I) get to lace 'em up and have a skate.