If you asked the kids what they miss the most about the old house, the shoe-in answer would be: the pond. Indeed, many memories centered around the pond in our back yard, especially in wintertime. And while our new back yard is superior in size to our old one, it does lack a pond.

As we prepared to enter our first pondless winter, Jim’s wheels began turning; he researched the possibility of building an ice rink in the back yard. His first assessment was that the slope of the yard–while not significant to the eye–was too great for it to work. But with my get-it-done husband, where there’s a will, there’s a way. So off to the hardware store he went.

He and the kids got to work putting the boards up.

Apparently, there’s a guy in Itasca who sells tarps made specifically for backyard ice rinks. The day Jim picked ours up, there was a line of minivans waiting to pick up their own tarps.

Then the filling of the rink began.

Despite my protests, the decision was made to let the hoses work overnight. Two hoses pouring water into the homemade ice rink through the night…unattended. You know where I’m going with this, right? I got up at 3 a.m. only to find that the boards broke under the weight of the water (recall the significant slope) and the backyard flooded with 2.5 feet of water. But Jim was undeterred. He built up the back boards and started again.

The hoses started up again, going all day, and again all night. The next day was Christmas Eve. We were on our way home from church that morning when we got a text from the next-door neighbor that the rink broke and there’s a flood. This time, the flood was in the neighbor’s back yard. Thankfully, they were gracious about it.

Time to give up on the idea of a backyard ice rink? Not a chance. Rather, Jim made it a bit smaller so that the slope was not as much of an issue.

As it turned out, the third time was a charm. After filling it for a third time, the boards held together. The boys went out to give it a try.

The next day, Ruth joined the fun in the subzero temperatures.

Meanwhile, the ice crew has been keeping the ice divot- and bump-free with an iron

and zamboni-mop.

Thankfully, according to the forecast, the ice will remain frozen for several days to come.