"I'm meeeeeeelting..."

Part of my yard is under water... This would be the area right around my shed, and the far end of my rink. About a foot in some places, thanks to the warm temperatures the last 3 or 4 days.

It looks like it might get a bit cooler over the weekend - but I fear too much ice will be lost by then to salvage anything. I may be wrong, cross your fingers. Maybe I can get one more skate in Saturday afternoon...

For Posterity...

I thought I'd mention Hannah's hockey games last weekend, for posterities sake. She was recruited again to play for the Canadiens, as they were short on players due to some of their girls playing in another hockey tournament. In the first game, Hannah scored 5 goals as the team went on to beat the Sabres 5-0. Immediately after that game, she played for our own team and scored 2 goals, 3 assists in a 6-5 win over the Bruins. On Sunday, the Canadiens beat the Sabres 3-1 (Hannah had 1 goal, 1 assist) and then the Leafs tied 3-3 (Hannah had all 3 goals).

Just before the first game, I promised her I'd pay her a dollar for every goal she scored.

She kept track, and daddy paid up.

Nearing seasons end?

It's always hard to tell up here when Spring has truely arrived.

In the next few days, it's going to be mostly above freezing... Forecast is as high as 11C next Tuesday. For me, that's shorts weather.

In preparation for this thaw, I shovelled off the rink yesterday. 2" of snow may not seem like much, but when it accumulates over the size of your rink... it adds up. My neighbour joined me near the end of my ice clearing to lend a hand, so that was nice.

Why am I shovelling? SHouldn't I just pack it in? Well, following the 11C day - the chinook will pass us and it looks like we'll be back in -10C for a few days after that. So I guess we'll just wait and see what Mother Nature brings us.

When the thaw does come, I've got a few things on my list to accomplish.

o Mark boards so I know where they go next year
o Paint back of boards with wood preservatives to prolong their life
o Repaint the front of the boards white - with a 10" strip of yellow along the bottom
o Finish the netting for the back boards


I'm not looking forward to the deconstruction and transportation of the rink/boards to my dads property, about 40 minutes east of town. But it beats storing the stuff in my yard. Besides, I have to make room to build our full size soccer net for Hannah! :)

Current Temp: -3C

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!

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

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

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)