It barely got below freezing. I wasn't able to make any decent ice.  I really hope that we have some better weather next year.  I'm chalking this year up to "solar flares!"

Well, we had our first significant snow fall last night.  We got 3 inches and it is sticking on the ground.  Unfortunately, the forcast is for highs in the forties for the rest of the week.  It's not nearly cold enough to put down the ice rink unless you're trying to gather water via rain and snow.

I've only put the liner down early once to try to gather water in this fashion.  That year I thought I'd try it to see if I could get the rink up really early.  It was early December and we had just gotten snow, like this year.  I put the rink up and the liner down.  I ended up gathering about an inch of water this way and then went to the hose.  It didn't make an appreciable difference in the time it took to fill up the rink, but it did make a difference in the amount of time I spent fixing things.  The liner got blown around quite a bit, leaves needed to be cleaned out and kids messed with it for the whole month of December.  That year I vowed that I wouldn't put up the rink until the weekend before Christmas.

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In another effort to make life easier, I recently switch to a new mending plate for my back yard ice rink boards.  The new plates are "c" shaped.  The interior of the "c" is the same size as 2x lumber, so when you put the plate, or bracket, onto the end of one board that is already afixed in place, it will hold up the next board by itself.  This makes it so that I can put the board up, then put the screws in without having to hold the boards at the same time. 

The new "c" shaped brackets cost about 3 times as much as the flat mending plates, but the convenience is worth it!  Of course, when I was in my twenties I looked for the absolute lowest cost solution and would have choosen to go with the flat plates.

I turn 44 in a few days and my age has definetely affected my ability to put up and maintain my Backyard Ice Skating Rink.  A couple of years ago I cut all of my 16 foot boards in half.  It takes a little longer to put the rink up because of the increased number of joints, but the ability to lift a single board more easily more than makes up for this detriment.

This year I'm trying a new strategy to get some help.  Over the years more and more kids have used the ice rink each year.  I'm inviting all of them (some are old enough to actually be of help) along with their parents over for an Ice Rink building party.  My hope is that having more people to carry boards around and put screws in will leave me with a back that's able to work on the ice throughout the winter.

Just got in from raking up leaves.  I really hate this task, but it seems like every time I neglect it I spend far more time that year picking leaves out of my 6 inch swimming pool.  Sticks are another problem, but at least you only have to pick up fallen sticks once.  The leaves seem to keep coming back.

I can't stress enough how important it is to rid your yard of these nuisances.  It's a lot easer to get them when it's in the 40s and sunny than to try and pick them out of your backyard ice rink later.

This year for the first time I'm seriously considering putting my ice rink up in my front yard.  I've got a fairly big property and I usually put the ice rink up way in the back.  I'm thinking that I might get more kids using it if it's in the front where they can see it.  Kind of like self advertising.

My only real concern is that my neighbors will think it's an eye sore.  It's not bad when it's frozen and there's snow, but it doesn't look too attractive when it's thawed in the spring.  Have any of you put a rink up in the front yard?

Wow, it seems like there are new Liner providers popping up all of the time.  I've checked out a few of them and have noticed a few things:

Many seem like this is a side business for them, and it probably is.  Their sites seem to be geared towards larger commercial purchases.  Some don't even have a way to purchase online, you have to call. The Backyard Ice Rink specific sites all want you to buy their whole "system."  I haven't figure out how to buy just the liner on these sites.  You would think that these sites would wise-up and realize that there are many people out there that would buy just parts of their "system." Most don't give free shipping, and because the liners are heavy, this really adds to the cost. There are a few sites selling 4 mil plastic as a liner.  You'd have to be awful careful with this stuff.  On the plus side, it would be lighter to work with and less to ship! I'm pretty convinced I'm going to try a new provider this year, as my old provider is way across...