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Backyard Rink 2.0

The old Coronavirus got us this week. Despite being sick things still needed to get done. 

Still botheringhis sick dad.

As you can see, Theo likes to be a pill from time to time.

Meadow is always finding ways to lure Pecan into her room. 

The weather this week looked like winter so we needed to get our ice rink built. 

This year we decided to expand it over the sidewalk. 

It was a wee bit small for us adults last year.

Theo helped at times. 


First we just had to figure out what we could build with the lumber we had. We had enough for the base wall at least.

Even Meadow joined us outside for a bit. 


I'd like to move this raised bed back a couple of feet next year to simplify the geometry.

Brooke lent a hand when I needed the help.

We use a DIY Iron Sleek setup. 2 x 12s and these metal brackets are all you need if your slope isn't too extreme.

I had to fill in some low spots with dirt on the part that went over the middle garden.

I had to wait a day or so to hammer in these support brackets. Our garage power runs under this area and through the middle garden.

Day one in the books.


I did a little research and bought this underground cable tester. For this use you plug in the emitter, on the right, into an outlet and then it sends a signal through the wire. The receiver, on the left, detects that signal. Slick.

This is going to be so awesome. Let's hope we get an actual winter this year. 

If we didn't have a few trees, we'd probably go even wider.

Theo told me he wanted to learn to use the sewing machine. 

We started with a simple project of a pillow. 

Nice job Theo!

Look at these crafty little kids.

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