The hockey rink has turned into a huge success. Martin has put a lot of man hours into maintaining it and bringing it up to perfect skating condition. One of the greatest challenges of isolation is keeping active and busy on evenings and weekends. The rink has full community buy in and is providing the kids with a healthy hobby. Martin bought a skate sharpener, water pump, and has hired a few of the boys to help with maintenance. We were nervous about flooding the rink because we were not totally sure how far down we would have to drill to get to water. The worry was that the ice under the hockey rink was already frozen to the ground and that we would have run pipes way out into the middle of the lake. Thankfully that was not the case. The ice is about 10inches thick and there is still plenty of water to pump out from under the rink. Martin has flooded the rink twice now and we are hoping to flood it again this afternoon. Each time it is flooded the ice flattens out that much more. A couple of my students have been working with Martin and are learning how to use the pump. I love seeing them work so hard. We are hoping the next flooding will make a huge difference. Last time it was flooded the weight of the water was too much for the ice in some places, which resulted in some pretty large cracks. It has been VERY cold this week and the ice has gotten way thicker. I am slowly improving at skating. Slow and steady wins the race here. Skating on a lake is more challenging than skating inside. I am being extra careful because of the lack of medical care that would be available if I fell or injured myself.
I look forward to seeing how the rink improves in the coming weeks. A few community members are going to bring down an old shed and some benches. We plan on hiring a few students to run a concession. They will sell hot chocolate and baked goods. We found an old log stove that will be used to heat the shed. Most of the children have received their skates and we are hoping to get more hockey sticks and another net in the near future.
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June 2019
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