Wednesday, February 1, 2012

making a rink

It's shameful I know, we live in the Great White North and our boys don't know how to skate. Give me SOME slack - neither Shel nor I skate either!
We have in our yard a dugout. A perfect place to teach the boys to skate. It does take some work to maintain an outdoor rink though you know. It isn't as easy as opening a tap and letting water flood the yard. (and I dont know how people do that anyway, I am terrified of pipes freezing)
I decided this year that I need to teach the boys how to skate and since we have our own pond we have the perfect opportunity to do it right in our own yard.
When I got home from work the other evening I thought we would clear off a spot and then this weekend get some skates for the boys. Clearing a spot would have been made easier if I had two things - a shovel for myself (we have one shovel but Max is apparently the "boss" of it and so he would not let me shovel more than one row at a time) and easier access to some water - because even a pond does not have perfect ice beneath the snow. I have a feeling I will know more about pond ice by the end of the winter than I ever thought I would know.
The weather has has been REALLY mild lately, so I also hope it stays cold enough to get some skating done before the ice melts.






2 comments:

Teena in Toronto said...

I used to skate a lot when I was a kid and loved it. I put on some skates ten years ago after not being on them for about 25 years ... and I was pathetic. Ha!

Anonymous said...

Oh, I have such happy memories of skating on ponds when I was a kid! It was always so amazing, to be sliding along on top of the water, and thinking about the fish under the ice... And learning to navigate the bumpiness of a homemade rink is a great skill. I'm so pleased you're doing this for your kids!