Saturday 1/9/10
Work on the rink continues; and I hope to have games on Sunday!
Steve Collins and Nathaniel Hein will be meeting at the rink today between 11am and noon to finish the work.
Thurs 1/7/10 Noon
It's noon, and time to attend to my other responsibilities. Having accomplished my goal of clearing the troublesome South end, I'm content.
1/7/10 10am
Pile the snow high! That's all I got...
1/7/10 9:00 am
Getting to the rink this morning I found almost four inches of snow covering the whole rink. Normally I would blow the soft white stuff off with the snow blower. However, the snow blower is still out of commission after the last snow storms' clean-up and my usual breaking of the blower.
This means I'm back to basics, shovel and wheel barrel.
Saturday 1/2/10
The ice was really thick in the South corner and took several hours to tackle. The outside of the rink was also in tough shape, also demanding a couple-of-hours of hard work. Thank goodness Steve showed up when I broke out the squeegee as the hard snow & ice had decimated my energy. After moving puddles we worked more on the outside of the rink to ensure the moisture wouldn't ruin the fun tomorrow.
Monday 12/28/09
Just got back from visiting my family in St. Louis where I lived for four years from '85 to '89 before moving to Boulder. After restocking my fridge I head to the rink where I'm expecting to remove ice from the South end so we can play Tuesday. To my total surprise, I find the rink completely covered in snow and ice.
Sun 12/13/09
Warm weather and persistence made my arrival at the rink this morning quite settling when I noticed the rink was nearly ready. A few puddles to move and all is good! GAMES ARE ON for SILVER SUNDAY PLAY!!!
Sat 12/12/09
Work continued today removing ice. In addition, we finally made the transition to moving water. While the rink is still wet, we were able to spread it really thin and tomorrow's games are a sure thing with a good amount of daytime sun.
Fri 12/11/09
Today's progress left the Southeast corner of the rink barren of ice and water. It was important to remove both as leaving residual water puts me back to removing ice tomorrow. One thing I've learned climbing in Colorado is that snow and ice can be used to soak up water. This is useful to dry up holds when getting onto freshly dried stone (or so you thought) on cold days. Utilizing this knowledge I threw the ice into the watery corner as I chipped it off the surface. Once I evacuated the corner the
amazing amount of water (ankle height) was alleviated. My socks were excited to begin drying out! Looking to the Southwest corner where the ice isn't thick enough the chisel away I hope tomorrow's weather will do me a favor and give it some hell. None the less, I'm comfortable saying that we WILL play on Sunday!
12/11/09
Having taken care off all of the snow the only thing remaining is to tackle the ice that remains on the rink. Most places it's a quater inch thick or less. However, on the Southeast corner of the rink it gets think; up to four or five inches covering a large area. None the less, I'll be spending my time removing the ice to further the progress of getting the rink dry.
Thurs 12/10/09 Noon
Continued cold and the sheer amount of moisture on the rink surface make is obvious that there will be no games tonight. Work will continue as we aim for having games later in the week.
12/10/09 10:30am
Blowing snow last night complicated the snow removal effort by putting a bunch of it back in the rink. That got me back out there with the wheel barrel and shovel; and so I also tackled some of the ice in the troublesome Southeast corner of the rink that serves as the low point for drainage but also the least exposed to the sun.
Wed 12/9/09 6:30pm
We're calling it a day. With all of the goal accomplished; removing all snow from rink, evacuating the players boxes and the perimeter of the rink we head home with some confidence that we may play again sometime soon.
Old Man Makowski's 69th birthday.
He sure was excited to be heading off to spend time with his daughter.
12/9/09 5:00pm
Blowing the last few areas and rotating between three pairs of gloves, with the other two inside on the heater. A big thanks to Charles and Matt for their help.
12/9/09 3:00pm
The blower is out of gas and my girlfriend needs her car (with the heated seats) back. I'm heading home for a bite and then some gas on the way back to the rink. Not bad progress for the first tank of gas as you can see from the picture. At 5:15pm I'll be all ready to evacuate the players boxes and the perimeter of the rink (hopefully with some help).
12/9/09 2:15pm
The cold is really rough on me as I except the fact my hands won't have feeling for quite some time. Driving me on is the light fluffy fly of the snow in these temperatures.
12/9/09 1:30pm
Got the blower!!!
12/9/09 1:00pm
The snow blower is ready; more updates after some serious blowing.
12/9/09 Noon
With some time to kill I did some hand shoveling. Objectives included clearing off the outside north end of the rink to access the shed and wheel barrel without stomping down the snow into ice and clearing the east locker room to accomplish the same feat for accessing shovels and ice picks.
12/9/09 11:00am
It's clear that this whole operation needs to begin with some snow blowing. After speaking with the Gateway Folks I'm reminded that I trashed the snow blower last year working the rink over several times. The blower was on the lift after they cleared the golf range and were reminded of the fact themselves.
The blower should be ready to use in a few hours; after a couple of bends and welds.
12/9/09 10:30am
Initial inspection reveals that the rink has a significant amount of snow on it.