Building A Rink 101

After the last few years of enjoying our friend’s ice rink Mark decided it was time to build our own this winter so we could skate whenever we wanted.  I was more than willing to let him, and so were the girls. He humored us all by letting us help him.  It was slow going at first but having all three girls help ended up being beneficial.  We were able to finish construction in just an afternoon.

Construction began November 2 since we knew Mark would be going to China the end of November and we wanted to make sure it was all put together before the weather turned. 

First item of business: cut 2x4’s to make braces.  The girls really had fun with this, marking the wood where Mark needed to cut with the saw. 

I’m finding out more and more how much Téa is like me.  Poor kid has to do everything perfectly.  No cutting corners.  How has Mark put up with me all these years?

Do you like Mark’s work station?  Still can’t believe that used to be our old dining room table.  We could barely fit 4 placemats on that thing.  It does make a good workshop table now, though. 

Every kid got a chance to try out the drill.  Téa was the only one who could push hard enough to drill through the wood. 

Being the oldest child has its perks.  Téa got to be the helper around the big tools. 

About three hours later I went upstairs to get a better view of our handiwork.  Finished dimensions are 36’x22’.  (*since we’ve skated on the rink now we’ve decided that it’s much too small and will be as big as the yard will allow next year). 

The rest of the afternoon was spent putting the finishing touches on: flood lights, wire, white Christmas lights and a step. 

For the month we had the rink built until the time we could actually fill it with water, this was what the girls did almost every night.  Apparently playing tag in it was just awesome.  I will admit that I would turn on the lights at night just so I could stare at the rink.  It was just so pretty.  (I just noticed that this picture was taken on the night of the full moon and looks like it’s one of the flood lights on the right)

Whenever friends would come over they had to play in it, too.

We waiting patiently (and sometimes not so patiently) for the weather to get cold enough to freeze the rink.  It finally came December 2.  That post to come soon…