HawthorneVillager.com

my family and i have built rink in our back yard for many years in the past. we used a few buckets after each skate to get the ice smooth again. once the thickness has built up enough, you don't need too much water to get it smooth again. our rink was around 14x50. not that big but it was a good size for a couple of us. not all of us had a nice big lot to build a 80x110 rink on. especially on these newer homes. on a small rink, a couple buckets would be much faster than dragging out the hose in -15c weather.

Fair enough,
The way you wrote it, it looks like you were suggesting that you could use buckets instead of a hose to fill it.
If you have done some light skating and just want to give the ice a dusting of water you could use a bucket but I have found that even the lightest coat goes on best with a hose.

For that final glass coat before friends come over for a party, I would attach the hose to hot water and just give it a very thin coat, the hot water melts any bits of snow and slows down the freezing a bit which makes for a glass finish...

Cant wait for winter!!!!

If you're gonna show off your rink, you're aware Costco has rink kits, right? It even comes with a decorating kit to paint the lines into the ice... it looks pretty nifty

Anywhere I've lived there has always been several public outdoor hockey rinks with indoor change room and small store for hot chocolate, hot dogs and coffee. A separate skating area for families too. Very organized by age group hourly and sometimes a Zamboni, other times just local parents with buckets. The goalies always live across the street and always willing to come on a door knock invite. Awesome that year I chose not to work.
Maybe the fairgrounds could open a barn concession stand/change room and host a sponsored outdoor hockey rink and skating rink? With either the Mohawk or Velodrome windfall proceeds.

_________________
No, no. You know who was right all along? The Mongolians. They knew that you just can't wall yourself off from the outside world. Putting walls up never helps anything. Tearing them down brings us together.
-Randy-South Park

That sound you hear is the 55 people in Milton scrapping their outdoor rink plans after reading jambels post. Just go to a public rink, folks.

It would be nice to have an outdoor one here. Growing up we used to live at the High Park outdoor rinks for shinny.

So my kids are still small and for the first attempt I am going to keep the rink small, 12 x 20. If it works out I will take my gazebo down next winter and make it bigger. Lots of great ideas, sounds like the freeze thaw can be an issue. I just don't want to freeze the pipes to the outdoor tap and have water everywhere in the basement when it bursts. I like the home-made Zamboanga ideas.