I'm a little bummed out on the rink front. Things have been so crazy with our schedules revolving around Josie's hospital thing and Trip's hockey and family and friends...I just haven't had time to get the rink underway. It's too bad because we just had a stretch of weather which couldn't be more perfect for ice making.

So there the empty rink sits and the yard is a mess with construction materials waiting for the several hour board-reinforcing project, then to fabricate the liner around the tree and drop drop it in the rink. Maybe by next week I can get something done. In the mean time I sit and watch the cold dreaming of the ice that could have been.

I'm so out of it. The temps are heading south in a hurry and I'm so far behind...not even close to getting going. The top boards are up and ready, but there's no bracing yet and there are huge gaps under the boards which need to be filled. The liner needs to be fabricated to accommodate the tree yet, and only then can I get it out there and start the fill.

Highs in the 20s and lows in the teens to single digits...and I'm not even close to ready yet.

5 hours today - 8 hr 15 min total build time so far.

Today I got the entire top rim of the boards completed. Now there are all kinds of gaps under the boards which need filling. This has proved to be a big challenge in the past, but this year I'm going to actually try to do it right rather than goof around with rigging up a fix all winter.

I've scrounged up some more lumber which i need to cut up to fit under the boards. This will likely take several more hours.

We emptied out the garage this afternoon and got started on this year's version of our famous annual time-sink. The Rink!

Henry and I hauled everything out...checked it over and were in a little disbelief that there were so many parts. All the stakes, and the nails, and to boards, and the braces (including all the ones I DIDN'T use last time), the lights, the concrete bases...everything.

Last year I stored all the side boards up and down in the garage only to find that they had totally twisted over the summer which made it super hard to get straight sides. Last spring I laid the boards flat for storage and put the most twisted boards at the bottom and stacked everything on top in hopes that it would straighted out over the summer. It worked and the worst twists were now straight..lesson learned.

I only got about 1/3 of the boards up so far for about 3 ½ hours work.

More to come