My Backyard Rink...

[Art Mulder]

(Not exactly Fine Woodworking, but quick, easy, and loads of fun!)

A Recipe For Winter Fun
Ingredients

1. One backyard. Flatness is more important than size.
2. Cold Winter weather. Several nights of -10c are best.
3. A bunch of 2x8 (or 2x6 or 2x10) boards
4. One large tarpaulin. (Or some heavy plastic.)
5. Water. Plenty of it.
6. The means to restrain impatient kids for a few days while it freezes.

Mix Well. Wait 3-5 days, depending on how cold things are.
Add some skates, serve to your kids, and enjoy.

I picked up eight 2x8x8' boards, and two 2x8x10' boards to frame my rink. This gave us a rink of about 14x26'. This is a bit on the small side for adults, but big enough for kids. It is also the largest that I could fit in the flat part of my backyard.

The first time you fill it, it'll probably take a few days to freeze solid, unless it is exceptionally cold. Two-three inches of water is a lot to freeze. After that, we just kept spraying on a thin later of water each night. We want to build it up to a good 4" thick or more, to help it last as long as possible. Remember to bring your hose inside so it doesn't freeze!!

More info and photos Here
plan-view-sm.jpg
rink-east.jpg

[Ken Fitzgerald]

I turned the sound up on my computer to see if I could actually hear the Canadian National Anthem playing.......

As a kid I lived in Craig Colorado. They did the same thing in the city park .....and put burn barrels around the edge and benches. Adults kept the fires going ....and put on new layers of ice at night.

That'll keep the kids having fun at home Art!

[Craig Zettle]

Hey Art, wait till the hockey games get going full tilt and the pucks start bouncing off the house! I had a 24' x 24' for a couple of years and man was it fun! You are right about the yard needing to be flat. We are talking table flat. The least tilt in any corner, and you have a spot that will not freeze solid unless it is sub zero. Nothing quite like stepping out the back door right on to your own rink, though. Enjoy!

[Jim Becker]

'Course now you need to build a mini-Zamboni...

[Lee Schierer]

When we lived in western Massachusetts as a kid my Dad used to go out in the yard with the lawn sprinkler once it got cold and stayed cold. He would just water the lawn for a short wile and let it freeze. Go back in a few hours and repeat the process. After a couple of nights we had an ice rink as large as we could reach with our hose. Any time it snowed we had to shovel it off so it would stay frozen. After each day of activity we would hose it down again and add another 1/4" or so. Once we got several inches of ice built up it could even take a day or two of warmer weather.

The local towns used to have berms around ball fields and the fire departments would hose them down and build up ice rinks the same way. Not sure if they still do that any more up there.

Lee

[Kyle Kraft]

Too much of a liability risk

[Phyllis Meyer]

Hi Everyone,

When we were kids in Chicago, our backyard was our winter wonderland. My parents would flood it with the hose and we had the best ice-rink in town. All the kids from the neighborhood would come. Great fun, what a memory! We didn't have money but we had a house-full (yard-full) of memories! I challenge all of you to "MAKE A MEMORY WITH YOUR KIDS"! We have some great hills in the back of our house now in Wisconsin...we sled down them, cook hot dogs on an open fire and drink hot cocoa. The girls are now 21 & 18 (we still do it)!!!

Have a great day!

Phyllis

[Art Mulder]

Too much of a liability risk

Bingo. Sad commentary on our times.

Heard from a friend that some local dads approached the
school (or the city) to put a rink on the tennis court in their neighbourhood.
Turned down because of legality fears.

On the other hand, 8yrs ago I lived in Edmonton, and there was an outdoor rink in our neighbourhood that was maintained (AFAIK) by the local community league. In fact, here it is. (summer satellite photo though).
I think that more neighbourhoods in Edmonton have them.

(I scrolled around in google-maps and it looks like the neighbourhood North, and NE have one, so I think many more do as well.)