Backyard Rink

Ripjiggen wrote:

Ran the Zamboni last night and she is pretty dang smooth.

Do you really have a Zamboni? Like a real one?

Opening night on my all natural front yard mini rink tonight. Finally had the combo of enough snow and cold nights this week. Got it froze in 3 nights this year after taking closer to 2 weeks last year. Most of that was from using a sprinkler, just like Walter Gretzky . Only problem is the sprinkler left a nasty blister 2′ wide x 20′ long that keeps spalling. Not sure the best way to fix that but it’s getting better each time I resurface.

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Had a little skating party tonight.

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gimruis wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Ripjiggen wrote:</div>
Ran the Zamboni last night and she is pretty dang smooth.

Do you really have a Zamboni? Like a real one?

I wish. I have a pretty good set up going with hot water on a spray bar wagon and towel that I have close to indoor ice right now. Need to take some pics got a good 4 hour session in tonight and it’s only Friday. Had to drag kiddo off to go to bed.

You guys make me jealous,50 years ago I tried teaching myself to ice skate.
A couple of things I learned that afternoon during an rain/ice storm, learning to skate downhill on wet ice your first time and misjudging how hard an LPG tank is will break your wrist when you hit it.
I spent two hours in the ER waiting on the Dr to get back to the hospital on icy roads to set a dumbazz farmboys wrist.
If that wasnt bad enough, the cast set wrong and it bored a hole in my right inside elbow joint and caused gangrene to set in, they took the cast off, gawd what a stench!!
Doc cut the gangrene out to save my arm, I still have the scars to this day!!

To me it still looks like so much fun!!! even after all of this time.
Never did learn to skate, sigh.
Now for the rest of the story, two days after I had the second cast removed I jumped out of a very tall swing set at school, yep, broke my dang wrist in the same place and my hand was bent back up over my arm, shoot!! eight weeks in a cast this time.
AND!! theres more!! three days before the second cast was to come off, I got pushed down the third floor stairs at school, tumbled all of the way to the second floor landing and yep! broke that sumbitch in the cast, in the same damn place!!

So Doc set it a third time warning me plates and screws would be next if it didnt heal right, I spent my entire third grade school year in a cast and learned to do everything and I mean everything left handed.
Well, the last time it was set, they didnt get the bones right and to this very day I cant lay my right hand flat, it only rotates far enough that my right thumb sticks straight up and thats all the further it will move.
I did not give them the chance to put in plates and screws!!

Need one of these

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How did you get a picture of TFG!! I mean, like his skating rink is as secret as Lake X used to be!!
I do know for a fact that now his tractor puts out over five hundred horses, IDO type stuff ya know!

Iowaboy1 wrote:

You guys make me jealous,50 years ago I tried teaching myself to ice skate.
A couple of things I learned that afternoon during an rain/ice storm, learning to skate downhill on wet ice your first time and misjudging how hard an LPG tank is will break your wrist when you hit it.
I spent two hours in the ER waiting on the Dr to get back to the hospital on icy roads to set a dumbazz farmboys wrist.
If that wasnt bad enough, the cast set wrong and it bored a hole in my right inside elbow joint and caused gangrene to set in, they took the cast off, gawd what a stench!!
Doc cut the gangrene out to save my arm, I still have the scars to this day!!

To me it still looks like so much fun!!! even after all of this time.
Never did learn to skate, sigh.
Now for the rest of the story, two days after I had the second cast removed I jumped out of a very tall swing set at school, yep, broke my dang wrist in the same place and my hand was bent back up over my arm, shoot!! eight weeks in a cast this time.
AND!! theres more!! three days before the second cast was to come off, I got pushed down the third floor stairs at school, tumbled all of the way to the second floor landing and yep! broke that sumbitch in the cast, in the same damn place!!

So Doc set it a third time warning me plates and screws would be next if it didnt heal right, I spent my entire third grade school year in a cast and learned to do everything and I mean everything left handed.
Well, the last time it was set, they didnt get the bones right and to this very day I cant lay my right hand flat, it only rotates far enough that my right thumb sticks straight up and thats all the further it will move.
I did not give them the chance to put in plates and screws!!

I feel like there is only one person that can tell a story like this.
It is the one and only Iowaboy. This is 100 percent meant as compliment.

tswoboda wrote:

Need one of these

That’s sweet!

That rink is awesome too with the real boards and high netting behind.

My ice turned to crap today. Don’t mind a 30 degree day but could deal without the rain and maybe dropping below freezing at night.

Ripjiggen wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>iowaboy1 wrote:</div>
You guys make me jealous,50 years ago I tried teaching myself to ice skate.
A couple of things I learned that afternoon during an rain/ice storm, learning to skate downhill on wet ice your first time and misjudging how hard an LPG tank is will break your wrist when you hit it.
I spent two hours in the ER waiting on the Dr to get back to the hospital on icy roads to set a dumbazz farmboys wrist.
If that wasnt bad enough, the cast set wrong and it bored a hole in my right inside elbow joint and caused gangrene to set in, they took the cast off, gawd what a stench!!
Doc cut the gangrene out to save my arm, I still have the scars to this day!!

To me it still looks like so much fun!!! even after all of this time.
Never did learn to skate, sigh.
Now for the rest of the story, two days after I had the second cast removed I jumped out of a very tall swing set at school, yep, broke my dang wrist in the same place and my hand was bent back up over my arm, shoot!! eight weeks in a cast this time.
AND!! theres more!! three days before the second cast was to come off, I got pushed down the third floor stairs at school, tumbled all of the way to the second floor landing and yep! broke that sumbitch in the cast, in the same damn place!!

So Doc set it a third time warning me plates and screws would be next if it didnt heal right, I spent my entire third grade school year in a cast and learned to do everything and I mean everything left handed.
Well, the last time it was set, they didnt get the bones right and to this very day I cant lay my right hand flat, it only rotates far enough that my right thumb sticks straight up and thats all the further it will move.
I did not give them the chance to put in plates and screws!!

I feel like there is only one person that can tell a story like this.
It is the one and only Iowaboy. This is 100 percent meant as compliment.

A story like that is best told while drinking beers in a garage while comparing scars.

Ripjiggen wrote:

My ice turned to crap today. Don’t mind a 30 degree day but could deal without the rain and maybe dropping below freezing at night.

Since we didn’t skate on it yesterday when it got warm, my ice is in really good shape other than being really soft. There was a super thin semi-frozen slush layer on top that I just shoveled off. Right now it’s the flattest it’s ever been. I wish I could resurface it right now. It would be perfect. Maybe I’ll do it tonight if it forecasts to be cold enough tonight. I just hope the mixed precip next week doesn’t come true. Gimme one or the other, it both.

Mine was like indoor ice before the rain. Now I have a curling rink.
Will be fine with a good zam.

Ripjiggen wrote:

Now I have a curling rink.

When the kids are too big to play on the backyard rink, this is my next venture.

gimruis wrote:

Do you really have a Zamboni? Like a real one?

Here’s a video I made last winter resurfacing. Some people call it a handboni. Sounds dirty.

I think my high school coach made/invented a hand flooding contraption similar to a Zamboni. It was on a long handle that the hose attached to. They called it a Gosboni since his name was Goslin.

I’m jealous that so many kids have these backyard rinks. When I was young we literally played pond hockey on ponds. It was great when Minnetonka froze without snow. Shooting the puck to your buddy 100 yards away was great.

One time I was skating backwards on snow free ice for a long way. Heard a goose honk and turned around. I was about 100 feet from open water. Dang!!

Not looking forward to this weather mess coming. Just got my ice hard and looking good again. Wet is always the worst.

I told the kids they could skate on it tonight. Hoping I don’t regret that. Maybe I’ll stay off but just let the kids skate. I’m just worried about a layer of snow over the water and slush. As long as the slush and rain pool up evenly, we should be good. The real issue comes when the snow starts falling and the temps start dropping.

We shall see.

Yeah letting the kiddo out tonight…negbor kid just walks over and skates whenever he wants. Guessing here in the metro he wont get out till Saturday with the wet junk coming.

A little 1 on 1 pond hockey nets tonight.

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It’s not looking good here in the metro. Rain Rain go away..

Ripjiggen wrote:

little 1 on 1 pond hockey nets tonight.

Bonus points for the flags Rip, especially James Beam!

Netguy wrote:

When I was young we literally played pond hockey on ponds.

That’s what my kids will do, we have a sweet pond across the street that one of the neighbors lights up. For some reason another neighbor literally across the street from the pond has a tiny ice rink setup in his backyard, guess he must just like the process.

Netguy wrote:

One time I was skating backwards on snow free ice for a long way. Heard a goose honk and turned around. I was about 100 feet from open water. Dang!!

LOL that’ll get your attention.

So far so good. Looks like most of the rain is either running off or just freezing to the ice. No clue where it’s going. There are some holes in the liner at the top of ice level.

I think we wound up with about a foot of snow after the rain, sleet and shushy crap.

Spent 2.5 hours clearing off the slop tonight. About 1/2 way through I was regretting the decision. The snowblower auger belt began slipping more and more. I had about 4 passes left and it wouldn’t go any more. I wound up shoveling the rest of the slop off. Took one good careful pass over the whole thing with the push shovel and got it leveled out pretty well.

I feel like when it freezes is should actually be in pretty good shape. A couple thick layers and it should be back in business.

You guys have your work cut out for you these next few days! Been there! The kids are sure gonna appreciate your hard work!

One heavy layer last night to fill in the rough surface and one thin layer this morning. Back in business. It’s as good as it was before the storm. Will probably have a pre-game skate today before we take on Pine City so my daughter can try out her new stick.

We had a pretty good session last night. Perfect weather. A few of my buddies rinks didn’t fair so well. I know one thing I am tired of shoveling it after this week. Seemed soon as I would clear it, it would start snowing again.

I was so happy to finally see stars in the sky last night. It was snowing non-stop since Tuesday.

When did you end up clearing it after the heaviest snow?

About half way through the snowfall slush was already bad but my snow blower made it through it.
Now it’s definitely long John season in the rink.

You guys got me excited and I have decided to try the “budget friendly” route. This is my first year doing this and I have to admit…I thought it would be easier with these cold temps. I packed all the snow Friday and hit it Saturday/Sunday with the shower function on my hose sprayer. Last night, I cleared off the little snow and let a thin layer from the hose (wide open, no sprayer) in the dark. This morning when I went to clear it off and put another layer on…I noticed pin holes (probably 2-5 in a 5×5 square) where it looks like the water is running through. Not sure how to handle this. At lunch I tried to use snow/water slushy mix and cover most of them letting them freeze the rest of the day. Any tips? still working on naturally leveling it with layer after layer but not making much progress there. I thought the water would naturally level the surface as well but it almost seems to make the peaks higher and the valley remains the same idk. Would I be better off trying to smooth it out as much as possible before trying to get more layers?
Again, no liner or boards. Pic attached. Thanks Guys/Gals

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