Wednesday, February 21, 2007

Trophy Time!


Trophy
Originally uploaded by Big Swede Guy.

Last weekend Hannah was asked to join another girls team (The Canadiens) in a hockey tournament in Fort Frances, as they were short players. The girls played well, finishing up the round robin with 2 wins and 1 loss (a 4-3 decision). Our goaltending was solid, but couldn't quite put the puck in the net in the semi-final game (lost 2-1) or in the Consolation final (lost 2-1) and the girls ended up a respectable 4th out of 6. The trip was a blast, and all the girls had a great time!

That's it for tournaments for this year!

Can't type more atm, I have a rink to go out and shovel!

Tuesday, February 20, 2007

Oooh! Video!

I saw one of my fellow rink makers with some video of his kid skating on their rink... Figured out how to do it - so here's a test one I made last year -Hannahs first year of hockey.

Expect more soon! :D

Tuesday, February 13, 2007

The Cold Continues...

unabaited. Although we are no longer hovering in the -40C area, we're still in the low -20c's.... It's really the windchill that is the problem....

That being said, I could no longer keep Hannah off the rink this week... Twice after I picked her up from school she BEGGED to go put on the skates and hit the ice. I relented, only after she was thoroughly bundled up. Even then, it was only for a brief period of time - 30-45mins max.

We did flood on Friday the 9th- it was about -20C outside. That's about 5-10 degrees colder than what I normally flood at - but the rink needed water. There were 5 sizable cracks that ran through the rink caused by the extreme cold the last few weeks - and they needed to be filled. Unfortunately, the flood wasn't the greatest. The temp was cold enough that the water was freezing before I was able to complete a full pass (across the rink). This basically caused some ridgelines to develop - the first time I've had that problem. The rink itself the next day, was in much better condition overall though.... And we did skate on Saturday.

Lesson learned:

If its around -20C do not flood unless a)perhaps using HOT water or b) fill large buckets and dump them to get a complete coverage to avoid those ridge lines. Personally, I'll stick to flooding between -10C to -15C. That way, I get a nice, even layer of ice!

Oh, and Hannah has another hockey tournament this weekend... She was picked up to play on another team for a tournament in Fort Frances. Wish us luck!

Current Temp: -18C

Sunday, February 4, 2007

Waiting on some warmth...


Night Time in Canada
Originally uploaded by Big Swede Guy.

The last few days it has been cold here. Yes, I know I live in NW Ontario. And it is supposed to be cold in February. But -40C to -50C is a bit much, even for us hardy Canadians.

So we wait for warmer temperatures to arrive, so that we can spend even a few minutes upon the ice without worrying about frostbite.

Current Temp: -42C (-48C overnight)