Maintaining the Ice!

I call myself the Ice Master because its no easy task maintaining the ice. Its simply not enough to just own a pond if you want to skate. Sometimes you get lucky, and you get a good ice season where Mother Nature makes it easy. If you get good consistent cold, all you have to do is wait until its safe and then skate.

Most of the time the ice requires some sort of maintenance that can be quite labor intensive.

I've purchased several tools and devices to enhance the quest for good ice. Some are more obvious than others.

1. Several snow shovels. The rule is, once you start shoveling the ice, you can't stop. If you stop then you will create blemishes and impurities in the ice that will haunt you all season. Yes, I know its just ice but one you get two different colors of ice, they heat up differently and can really screw up the surface for skating. Good ice is as smooth as glass. Crappy ice bumpy and have problems that make it difficult to skate.

2. I have an old snowblower that can be employed if there us the right type of snow. Its an old Ariens with a new Snow King motor. It has chains but the friction drive wheel is finicky and doesn't produce much torque.

3. I have enough garden hose to hook up to the faucet at the house to water the ice. Yes...I water the ice. It can take up to four hours but it fills in all the cracks and is the best way to reclaim the surface. I've heard several suggestions to get a submersible pump to flood the ice but I think the garden hose works better.

4. I have an "Ice Shaver" mower. Its basically a push lawnmower with an ice shaving blade instead of grass cutting blade. It cost $600 but is worth it when the ice gets crappy. You can take out all the bumps in a much shorter period of time.

5. I have a Jeep with a plow. I can usually drive out on the ice and plow in February depending on the winter. It makes things real easy to get the ice plowed and creates some decent snowbanks so you don't lose all of your pucks.

6. I installed a streetlight to play at night. I've tried glow pucks and other devices but decided to just light up the pond. Its not much good to have good ice if everyone is at work during the day. Now we can skate at night and see the puck.

WHAT I NEED:

Although I can maintain the ice myself...it never hurts to have help. For example, twenty hearty helpers with snow shovels would get the ice ready in about an hour!