Winter Storm Denis 01.26.11

You know you're a true Icefarming Icehole when they name a storm after you. Almost 8" came down overnight at LCIA. Just what we needed. With help from Gerry and Ed, we were able to clear off the rink within a few hours. Where to put the snow is becoming quite a challenge. More on the way this week!

Snow Again? 01.25.11

Ahh, another 3 inches today. Nice. Seriously though, I'll take light snow over rain any day. The latest big storm is underway as I type this.

Crap Storm 01.18.11

Woke up with about 2-3" of light snow on the ground Tues AM. Soon it turned to freezing rain, then a light rain. Mother Nature VS Icefarmer. The dilemma: take the snow off and let the freezing rain/rain build on the ice surface creating a airy bad layer or leave the snow and hope the rain forms a crust on the snow surface insulating our ice that could easily be removed. The forecast said the light rain would end by the evening. Note: Heavy rain is a no brainer, you have to get the snow/slush off the rink. So, being that it was a light rain, I let the rink be. Unfortunately, the rain continued well into the evening. The rain saturated many areas of the snow creating a slush, then froze solid. Ouch. Mother Nature is one cruel biatch. No offense MN.

GIGANTIC DIG - 01.13.11

Record snow falls came down Tuesday night Jan 11th. Within 12 hours we had 22" on the ground (yard stick measurement in my driveway). The plow service in Roxbury handled this storm about as well as Bloomberg during the Christmas Blizzard. They could only plow the lower part of the driveway. Luckily, Alan came with his plow Thurs AM. Two hours later, we finally made it down to the rink. At one point I had to snow shoe from the pool barn to get the Kabota to assist. Ed showed up and we managed to clear the rink before the sun went down. Hey our benches now have back rests!

Big Dig 2 - 01.08.11

Round 2 - LCIA got hit with a nice amount of snow just in time for Saturday's skate. Thankfully the crew that showed up worked like machines and we cleared the surface in record time.

New Years Day Skate - 2011

The Annual New Years Day skate was a bit lighter this year. Men at night, boys in the morning. Nothing cures a hangover like 24 degree ice. Note to self: bring a camera that can mount on a tripod so I don't have to photoshop in the missing person taking the picture (2 original pics below) Hodgey, I know you can do a better pirate impression than that! Not bad though.

Big Dig 1 - 12.27.10

Our first significant snow fall (A Blizzard actually) hit us just after Christmas. We dug out Monday night for the Tues AM skate.

Opening Night 2010-2011 Season 12.09.10

Guys started showing up for the opener while layers were feverishly being put down. We were going to make this happen, there will be a skate tonight! Some areas the ice was solid as a rock, others, it was like stepping on a trampoline. The ice would literally bounce. The decision was made to skate and see what happens! Note: Listen to the ice crunch in the video we made for Pat and the Low Tides. We ended up beating the crap out of the ice that night and finding all the trouble spots - good times!

First Sheets 2010-2011 Season

Tuesday, December 7th was the night our first layer was laid down on the newly painted surface. So far so good. We scheduled the opening night for Thurs, Dec 9th. Wednesday night work continued. Layer after layer was being put down and we started building a solid base. Then tragedy struck! Air pockets were developing below the ice surface randomly all over the rink. It was like the ice was not sticking to the low spots on our surface and bridging the gap. Was painting the surface a huge mistake? We tried filling the air pockets with water but it would freeze, expand and heave again. The solution was to punch out the ice and fill the holes with slush. Stress levels maxed out with Thursday's opener looming less than 24 hours away. We started Icefarming early Thursday, putting layer after layer down. We had very little snow available to make slush so Rat picked up a 55 gallon can of snow from Taft's Zamboni dump pile that morning. Things started looking better.

Painting of the Court 11.29.10

This year it was decided to paint the concrete surface white. This would avoid having to roll out the 4' wide white vinyl material that in the past has made our ice white. In theory we would have stronger ice with the lack of a material barrier between the concrete surface and our ice sheet. The chillers would not have to work as hard as well as being able to maintain a thinner sheet of ice. The outside temps dropped on our painting days which pushed the recommended painting temperature limits. A rain day washed away some of our work and caused some areas to crack and peel. Regardless, we finished painting and touching up our trouble spots just in time for a light snow. Mother Nature loves to mess with us. I had giant fears of shoveling the snow and paint completely off the surface. Luckily that was not the case and laying down our first layer was next.