As a proud member of the Typical American Male Fraternity...if I do something and it meets with any amount of success/applause, when I do it again, I have to do it bigger and better. Freedom Rink is no exception. The kids loved the rink last year and I enjoyed hosting the entire circle as they skated and generally had a grand time.
I've been thinking all year long about how to make the rink better. I saved some pine straw from the fall raking to help reduce the depth of the "deep end." I put it under the tarp to try and cut back on the amount of water I required. A second change is based on the wood leftover from the Remote Control Palooza (blog still pending - waiting on pictures). I also wanted to get the wood out of my garage. For those of you that remember last year, I had some "bowing" of the wood and eventually the tarp was pinched. I planned to use the plywood to add a second layer of structure as well as prevent the tarp from being pinched between boards on the side. The pic below gives you a perspective of the double layer of plywood and 1X6 boards.
I worked fast over the last week to get the frame in place. The weather guessers were saying we had a long string of cold weather this week, and I wanted to flood and be ready for that first deep freeze. We (my buddy Jon helped a lot this year) have more posts in to help support, we also added some length from 36'. The tarp won't support a full 48' but it will be 40 plus after I get some more water in the rink. We flooded on Tuesday. I ran out of daylight on the flood after a few hours. I was hesitant to flood it much after dark and not be able to keep an eye on the progress. We timed it perfectly. There is a nice flat and super thick glacier in the yard.
Today was the first skate of the year. The kids were so excited.
As always the kids came in and expected some hot cocoa.
Now that the rink is bigger. Time to upgrade the Zamboni :)
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