A Clean, Pristine Sheet of Ice

The weather here in rural Northern Illinois is turning unseasonably warm for a spell. After the passing of a dangerous winter storm that swept through the area (and snarled holiday travel throughout much of the nation ) before Christmas, we are looking at getting temperatures in the 50s today. That isn't good news if you were hoping to do a little ice skating outdoors.

One of the communities in the area where I live just opened an outdoor rink. I didn't make it to the grand opening, but I hope to get to the rink at some point during the winter. I might even take my hockey skates with me when I go to Ice Castles (https://icecastles.com) in Lake Geneva in the New Year, as Geneva National Resort & Club had an outdoor ice rink when I stayed there last winter. In any event, I probably won't be spinning around the ice with a hockey stick and a puck. Unless the local outdoor rink sets aside some time for "stick and puck" sessions, I will probably be resigned to just skating (which is still fun).

I haven't been on skates or played ice hockey since I moved from North Carolina to the sometimes frigid Midwest. I live in a relatively rural area and there are no indoor ice rinks convenient to me. Considering that I spent most of my youth living on the coast of North Carolina and didn't have access to an ice sheet for much of that time, I didn't get an early start as an ice skater or as an ice hockey player. I expect that that my relatively modest skating abilities will have deteriorated to say the least. I expect that I will pick it up again in time after some practice, but it will probably feel pretty unsettling at first. It isn't as though I learned to ice skate from the time that I could walk.

Perhaps I will decide to build a rink at home in the not-too-distant future. A friend and former baseball teammate of mine built one for his family. As a longtime hockey fan that enjoyed watching the game long before I ever took the ice as a player, I had read about how people built backyard ice rinks for their families. Once I tried my hand at playing both inline roller hockey and ice hockey, I was hooked. I even kicked around the idea of building a rink using synthetic ice or Sport Court so that I could skate year-round in North Carolina when I wasn't skating in a local ice hockey league. But the expense, the idea of killing the grass, and the idea of taking away from my beagle's play area dissuaded me.

I am not worried about killing the grass during the winter months here in Northern Illinois. But there are still some considerations. One is site consideration. One must consider the degree of slope. Well-constructed/well-designed homes tend to have some degree of slope. That helps keep your home safe from being flooded/inundated with water when it inevitably rains. The backyard has a decent bit of slope and might be unsuitable, although I haven't actually measured it. The front yard appears to have less of a slope and might be a good candidate for a rink, although I have to get water to the rink for filling it up and for ice resurfacing. And I wouldn't have a particularly big rink, as I wouldn't want to be too close to the road. The snow plow might end up covering a portion of my rink if I were to get too close to the road. And then there are the trees on either side of the driveway. Expense is a consideration, although it isn't a particularly daunting one. Building an outdoor ice rink is a DIY project that I could handle and relatively inexpensive kits are sold to make it easier to complete. Time is probably more of a problem. I work some long hours and my recreational time is limited. I know that there is at least one company in the Chicagoland area that installs and removes ice rinks, but I don't know if they come out this far to install and remove seasonal ice rinks. If they do, there would undoubtedly be an additional charge based upon the mileage.

In any case, I am not going to act on my dream of having a home ice rink this winter. But I am going to give it some more thought and consideration with an eye on next winter (assuming that I am not living somewhere warmer next winter 😉 🌊 🏖️).

If you live in a colder climate and think that you would enjoy having your own ice rink or if you are just interested in the process of building an at-home ice rink, click on the link below. 🥶