I'm all excited about winter . . .

Part II

So I decided to head out to the spot that I've been slowly prepping for the past three years and get serious about my rink...

Some perspective.

These steps are off the deck to the back yard (which is mostly woods).

Straight up the right of this frame is the path in the next picture.

Yes, that's the tip of the John Deer I'm using in the snow!

The short path to "the rink."

The area I've been slowly clearing.

Had to take down the tree with my hat on the left plus extra little brush that I hadn't really planned on. It wasn't symmetrical otherwise.

This really leafy area was cleared of big brush by some tree cutters I had over a few weeks ago. There were tons of little stubs that I wanted to hack down though.

Um, sweetie...remember those blades we just had sharpened? May need a touch up in the spring. (-:

Then people started waking up from naps, kids came home from school, had to do dinner (o.k., it was pizza but still...) and then in a blur...

We got this year's tree decorated!

THEN:

I remembered what is was that I wanted to write myself a note about earlier that day.

TIME: 9:35p.m.

"Oh, uh, honey pie...it seems the tractor is actually out in the woods waiting to get driven up the slick ramp into the shed. Had a little problem with that earlier today."

Smile sweetly...

Yes, those are his pajama pants.

Forgetting he needed to push while I drove, he was going to just hop on and get the job done. That was until . . .

He saw the frost all over the seat!

"I'm not sitting on that" I believe was the quote.

(-:

So, I drove.

He pushed.

Tractor went up.

And we went to look at my rink spot with flashlights.

In the end, I'm not sure how much farther I'll even get on the rink this year. This may be it. But, if we get great gobs of snow, I just might give it a whirl at making a snowbank ice rink without boards or a plastic liner. Here's a most basic layout I've found online. Oh, have I seen some really cool rinks in my research.

There's always next year...

Which will be here again in a blink of an eye!