Backyard Dreams

After weeks of talking about it, researching my options and then finally making a decision on how I was going to set about accomplishing it, the day finally arrived yesterday for me to set my plan into action.  I made a backyard skating rink!

I’m actually making it for the use of my five-year-old daughter, Ruby.  She enjoys skating quite a bit, as do most Canadians but as bad as it sounds, sometimes it can be hard to find the time to do it as often as we like.  But I’ve got to be honest….I haven’t been this giddy about a little project for as long as I can remember.  And hell, it’s not really even big enough for me to anything on it, as far as picking up speed or practicing my stick handling goes, anyway. 

Maybe it goes back to the childhood dreams or something of that nature.  I mean, I certainly didn’t have a backyard rink as a kid, nor did anybody I knew.  That was something for millionaires, wasn’t it?  In the eyes of a child it sure was.  Might as well have asked for a tennis court or polo field.  I always envied the thought of those farm kids you heard about, the ones that had frozen ponds and whatnot on their property where they skated every single day.  The Canadian Dream, all right.

Although I didn’t have a pond installed in the yard, I think it’s gonna turn out okay.  First, I had to pick the spot.  The lot our house is on presented a few options, but really I knew where I wanted to put it from day one.  The backyard immediately behind the house to which the backyard opens onto is primarily laid in bricks and patio stones.  Except for this one patch of grass, kind of in the middle of it all, off to the left hand side.  I have no idea what the real purpose of it was, as we just bought the house last year.  My thought is that it had been a garden plot for the previous old lady owner where she could cultivate some veggies amongst her cement haven back there.  The grass was simply the product of letting it having get overgrown for a couple of years. 

Anyway, the spot was ideal…mere feet from the back door flat, rectangular, surrounded by trees, completely fenced all around and able to be viewed from any window on that side of the house.  The idea is that even when we’re making supper in the evening for 30-40 minutes, Ruby can strap on the blades and go for a twirl on a moment’s notice without all the hassle of a two hour endeavor to the community league rink.  So, as I waited for it to get cold, I planned my rink…and this is what I’ve got so far.

The grass plot measured 17’2” long and 11’3” wide.  I didn’t want to put the boards right up against the border of patio stones, just in case the ice expanded while it froze and thus pushing on the stones, leaving me a brick laying project come Spring.  So, I checked out the local Totem and found the wood planks I wanted (10x2’s) came in almost perfect lengths…so I brought home two 16 footers and two 10 footers.  16X10 will be a perfect sized rink.

So after work yesterday (Tuesday night), I rushed home, change d into the ol’ work clothes, gathered the equipment I would need and set to it.  After packing down some of the snow that had already fallen to make it a little more evenly flat, I put my boards together.  In hindsight, and something I will keep in mind for next year, you should really set the boards up before the snow comes.  Even an inch or two of uneven ground can make a fairly significant difference when it comes time to filling it with water.  Having it as level as possible is key. 

Next up was to install a liner.  Yes, you can make a rink by simply spraying the ground enough times, but trust me, it is a much longer and arduous task.  Not to mention all the frickin’ water you waste as it is unable to be contained within the boards and seeps into the ground.  A liner is most definitely the way to go.  I went and bought a tarp at Canadian Tire that measured 15x20 to give me a couple of extra feet on all sides.  I laid the tarp liner inside the frame and had enough left over to just pull it over the boards and tuck it underneath.  No staples required, which will help the tarp last longer, plus no having to remove the little buggars during takedown.  You can tell by the picture, it was snowing the whole time as I was building this.  How fitting!

After getting the tarp laid, it was simply a matter of filling it up with water.  I had read that you don’t want to be effin’ around with a frozen hose, etc. in the cold outside, so what I took this big red tub that we normally use to fill with ice and beer for summer parties and coiled my hose up in it, leaving each end hanging out for easy use.  All I gotta do is unscrew the hose, pick it up and carry it inside the house for storage in the laundry room.  Just as easy to take back outside for my subsequent floods.

Now, after having filled it up and even as I write this, we have had a huge dump of snow.  I don’t even know how many centimeters, but it’s been a lot.  When I woke up this morning, the entire thing has just about been completely covered with last night’s snowfall.  So truth is, I don’t even know how the water froze yet!  Whatever the result, it’s no big deal…I have another flood planned and then I want to go over it with my homemade zamboni for a nice, clean finish.  But I’m dying to give it it’s first shovel and see what I’ve got underneath!

More updates on my backyard rink to come……