BACKYARD RINKS

Nothing says Winter in Canada like having a backyard rink to play on.  While we wait for Gary and Don to sort out whose ego is bigger this is the winter to construct your very own backyard rink.  With pizza and beer sales down everywhere every guy has extra cash on hand as well.   Global warming is certainly doing its best to shorten the season for this time honoured treasure as best she can which still leaves us with a couple of months to construct something even Mike Holmes would be proud of in your own backyard.  When it comes to backyard rinks let’s face it – Size matters!  Men love to describe their rink in terms of feet and not inches, and then there is always that one guy who is over the top bragging about a 40’ x 70’ with a custom plastic UV rated white tarp, rounded corners, end boards, 2 sets of nets, a homemade flooding device concocted out of PVC pipe with separate hot and cold water feeds to get the ice perfect every single time and lighting that your favourite rock band would be proud to own.  We have even heard of  people in Brooklin that bring home survey equipment to get the backyard level before they tackle the  arduous task of erecting the frame on level ground.  These are the guys that snicker at the amateurs who have one corner that is 12 inches deeper than all of the others.   Then there is the rest of us... the guys that do their best Red Green impression by applying duct tape (normally a man’s best friend for home improvement projects) to seams in a tarp that closely resembles a quilt your grandmother made out of 7 different pieces of material.   However, using coloured tarps and duct tape only make for more mess then is necessary as the sun melts the ice away faster on those sunny days and water has a funny way of seeping out when you need it most.  If you are considering tackling this project go see a great local resource in Don and Chuck at Mitchell Lumber.  I think they have a sign that says – “helping men build rinks for many generations”.  They can get you all of the wood, plastic, screws and hoses you will need to get your backyard rink in order.  Last year Jason had to buy his neighbor 3 cases of his favourite adult beverage when his rink did not hold water so well. On the positive side he did create a perfectly flat and smooth piece of ice.  Unfortunately, it was covering his neighbour’s entire driveway and much of his detached garage.  Only the Canadian Army could have shored that monstrosity up properly.  Luckily his neighbour was pretty good natured about the whole debacle, considering he spread close to 100 lbs of salt everywhere just to avoid the lawsuit of him wiping out on the way to his vehicle for two months.  Check out the website we have included to get you started and if that seems too easy You Tube and Twitter are full of guys who thought they knew what they were doing.