And so it begins......

Joel built a little ice rink in our back yard last winter. Anna has been learning how to ice-skate. She is getting pretty good and they both enjoy skating in the back yard. He was determined, in typical guy fashion, that this year it would be bigger and badder. Last year, he duct taped two tarps together to be the base of the rink. This year, he wanted to just have one large tarp, so he ordered one on-line. While waiting, not so patiently, for it to come, he decided to build the frame of the rink, which is what is seen in these photos. When finished, the rink will be about 18 x 24 feet. Now, for those (most of the normal population) who have never made a back yard ice rink, let me just tell you that they are NOT maintenance free. If it snows, he must, of course, shovel off the rink. And after a snow or after skating on it, he must pretend that he is a zamboni and clean the ice. This involves hauling the hose out of our basement, where it is kept in our basement shower stall, so it stays unfrozen and ready for use; then filling the rink with a new layer of water and doing whatever he does to make sure that it fills smoothly. And, he must check the rink nightly (I believe that 10 or 11 pm is the best time) to make sure that it is still there and in good working order. Honestly, I really am not sure what he is doing to the rink out there at that time of night and I am not sure that I really want to know. So, I will just leave him to his ice and anticipate how much bigger the rink will NEED to be next year :-)