Monday, March 06, 2006
The Backyard Pond
It’s a Canadian right. Every kid should have a hockey rink in their backyard. Unfortunately, it’s usually up to us “lack-of-building-talent” dads to build them one.
My kids have gotten big enough to now justify the attempt at building a sheet of ice. Now I don’t want to fool you all into believing that I was out there with lumber, nails, plastic in hand and built it from scratch.
It was more like a microwave popcorn approach. I received a couple of those rinks in a plastic bag for Christmas so it was time to just stick in the hose and give it a whirl.
Lesson one was quickly learned as I realized I should not have started filling the bag (10’ x 20’) on the low side of the yard. As I stood there holding the end up for over an hour so the water didn’t come spilling out, I cursed under my breath for the self-tutoring I was providing myself.
When it came time to fill the second bag it proved to be much easier. 800 square feet was soon set in place.
Now I know that some folks out there are of the opinion that the rink is going to kill all of the grass in my yard. I prefer the glass is half-full approach which means there will be 800 square feet less of grass for me to cut this summer.
I’ll update everyone in a couple of weeks as to whether my build was successful or not. I’m sure everyone will end up blaming me for saying this but this warm weather is not helping my new rink at all.
My kids have gotten big enough to now justify the attempt at building a sheet of ice. Now I don’t want to fool you all into believing that I was out there with lumber, nails, plastic in hand and built it from scratch.
It was more like a microwave popcorn approach. I received a couple of those rinks in a plastic bag for Christmas so it was time to just stick in the hose and give it a whirl.
Lesson one was quickly learned as I realized I should not have started filling the bag (10’ x 20’) on the low side of the yard. As I stood there holding the end up for over an hour so the water didn’t come spilling out, I cursed under my breath for the self-tutoring I was providing myself.
When it came time to fill the second bag it proved to be much easier. 800 square feet was soon set in place.
Now I know that some folks out there are of the opinion that the rink is going to kill all of the grass in my yard. I prefer the glass is half-full approach which means there will be 800 square feet less of grass for me to cut this summer.
I’ll update everyone in a couple of weeks as to whether my build was successful or not. I’m sure everyone will end up blaming me for saying this but this warm weather is not helping my new rink at all.
