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Leaves and debris
Woke up this morning, checked the rink and almost chopped down every tree in my backyard. The rink was covered in needles and small leaves. I tried my best to get as much off, but I still can't walk on it, so some is left on. My question is, with these needles in the ice, will it ruin the rink? Should I just flood it and have them just freeze underneath? What are you experiences/tips with leaves and needles.
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Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Karen Noto on -
Don't feel bad, I have the same problem.
Unfortunately, if your ice gets any kind of direct sunlight, the leaves and such will attract the heat of the sun and it will burn holes in your ice. I know this from experience from last year.
There are a few things you can do.
You can get as many of the leaves and such out before the rink freezes solid. Use a pool skimmer, and you may have to break the top layer of ice that has already formed. Once you have the majority of the leaves and such out, you can add a layer of water. I usually do this at night when the temps drop, and the water added will freeze easily overnight.
You can paint your ice white. This is the option I am now looking at, as my ice is pretty solid, but the windstorm we had over the last few days blew tons of leaves into the rink and they have frozen in the ice. I may just wait a few days, as the temps are supposed to get back up into the 40's in a few days, so that I might be able to get most of the leaves out then.
I will let you know how things work out. I hope you have good luck with yours.
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Permalink Reply by Angelo Talluto on
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Thanks Karen. Rink almost frozen solid, so I sacrificed my 9 year old son :>) and let him walk on and start sweeping. He got quite a bit off. Tonight I'm going to flood by dumping two garbage cans of warm water over it and hopefully that smoothens out the ridges and gets rid of a few more needles. Ironically, the trees that are causing the problem are helping by blocking most of the sun. Hopefully, by tomorrow we're skating. All the best.
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Permalink Reply by John Shapiro on -
I am considering the white paint route as well. My ice surface is awful right now between the light snow and my stupid dog jumping into the rink when there was an inch of ice. It will take some work to get it smooth.
I have probably a dozen or so leaves below the surface that I am going to try to paint instead of chip out. Then flood over with hot water to try to smooth this thing out.
Anyone have a thought on what type of paint will work best for this?
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Permalink Reply by Karen Noto on
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I saw a great idea on another site for obscuring the leaves and such that are frozen into your ice. You use milk. I know it sounds weird, but I figured it might work. Mix 1 gallon of milk with 10 gallons of water and do bucket dumps over the areas with leaves and twigs. The white of the milk will obscure the sun's impact on the leaves and give the rink a milky white appearance. And it's alot cheaper than paint!!
Let me know if you try it and how it works for you. Its still too warm for me to try this, as it will be almost 60F today, so I am gonna try to scoop leaves out with a skimmer in the thawed areas first and try the milk idea after the ice freezes.
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Permalink Reply by John Shapiro on
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That's a good idea! Unfortunately, my rink has sprung a leak, I think from a dog adventure into the rink last week. I'm in damage control mode now, so it won't be an issue to get all those stinkin leaves out of the ice.
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Permalink Reply by Karen Noto on
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Sorry to hear about the leak. I hope you can find it and take advantage of the warm weather to get it patched.
I am about 40 miles west of you in Ottawa, Illinois!
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Permalink Reply by John Shapiro on
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That's what I'm counting on...still about 4" of ice to thaw, but going to get some rubber boots today!
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Permalink Reply by Karen Noto on
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Once you find the leak, try some pool patch stuff. I got some from a pool supply store out here and it can be used underwater. I used it last year and it worked great. Good luck!
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Permalink Reply by John Shapiro on
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I have a tube of E6000 ready to go. I figured that plus a piece of liner will fix it if I can find it. If not, a rush on a new liner will be on order.
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Milk? Really? I could just see it now: "Honey, do you know who drank the three bags of milk?"..."Yes dear, the rink did"....slap!!!
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Permalink Reply by brianjay5g on -
I tried some white non-toxic kids paint. I would need more of it (less dilution) to make a difference. So many leaves and twigs. Mix it up with a bucket o' water. I'll try this again if it ever gets cold enough to keep frozen. We'll have lows of 0degC here for another week. Yikes.
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Permalink Reply by Magnus Leslie on -
That was an interesting find, Karen. I never would have thought about milk...might have to give it a shot here once the temps drop off again. Rink held up pretty well with 44 degrees yesterday, but never got below freezing last night and back up to 46 today and I just noticed a few burn holes where leaves had fallen. Worst case i waste a couple of gallons of milk.
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