Yes, even when underfoot…..especially while wearing skates.

Jefferson has an ice rink, and it’s in the park right behind our house (behind the pool for those who don’t know exactly where it is).

This is our 4th Winter here, and no one recalls what the shape was the first year.  2 years ago, we were certain it wasn’t filled and last year it was filled, but snowed a lot while freezing and left a 4″ slush layer that someone had tried to snowblow and destroyed a large section with 3″ deep tracks.

Mason got a sled for Christmas and we short-cutted across the park for a hill.  The rink looks like it had been plowed once this Winter, but had 4″ of snow on it.  Scuffing around, it felt really nice under there.  I returned later with a shovel and cleaned off a section.  It was very nice and skate-able.  So, the plow went on to the tractor and the whole thing got cleaned off.  We used a couple of heavy metal shovels to scrape down the rest of the surface and the ice was great!

We even started to design a mini-zamboni to keep it great.  Our first attempt worked really great and we had the middle half very smooth and glass like.  We saw a few flaws and went back to tweak our rig.  The second pass was on a warmer day and the water was not spreading as fast and gave us a ripple effect.  We then doubled the amount of holes in our water manifold and got more consistent coverage.  A few coats later, this started to smooth back out.

However, yesterday was a heat wave and today will be worse.  49 degrees?!?!?  So, Friday is supposed to drop to real cold again.  We’ll be back out there to see what we can do to extend our skating season   Come join us!  I have not seen anyone else out there yet.

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With the temperature dropping, and the snow flying, we don’t go to the farm much in Winter.  We stopped by there recently to check on things, and to put the large cooler back in ‘storage’.  We also dump coffee waste into our compost pile there once in a while too.
However, one part of the farm came alive, the tractor.  If you are a devoted reader, you might have noticed that it does double duty in the winter and get to live in a nice garage.  Snow removal.  For some reason I left the plow on the front of it when I brought it to town.  Maybe I’d try it.  When our first major storm hit, it worked well.  It cleared Grampy’s driveway out in no time flat.  There was hardly any in my driveway, but was able to drag out the small drift against the garage door.  It could move quite a bit of snow.  So, then we go….

Downtown.  If there is wind, let alone the blizzard that just left, downtown always gets far more snow then the house which is just blocks away.  The sidewalks here amaze me.  You can see the curb, but then the drift will be 4′ high.  State street is the worst.  Wilson also gets deep, but not quite as much.  I started clearing the corner, pushing across the curb cut and quickly made piles in the no parking spots.  Once my diagonal access reached it’s limits, I circled around to clear the wilson side.  It was 3′ deep in the middle, but I was able to clear off the edge first, make another pass, then in the deep spot I knocked down the drift before making a second pass.  There was only one spot that I had issues, and that was the tallest part of the drift was also behind the lightpole, right near the end.  I was able to move snow around the lightpole to the pile in the street, then broke through.

State St was another story.  Just as I wanted to swing around and attack it from the far direction, a Buick equipped with dual walkers, pulled into the last spot on the street.  The bumper overhung the curb at least 2-3 feet.  And that blocked the easy pass the tractor would make.  In fact, the spot just in from that bumper was the peak of the entire drift and I would have been aimed straight at it if I went around.  Curses!

It took a lot longer, but I pulled out the drift little by little backwards in order to clear a path around the car.  Once I was able to get around the car, then I could make passes the way I wanted to.  I was them amazed on how much snow I was able to push.

Verdict….Works great up to 2′ no problem.  Gets into tight spaces.  Moves a lot of snow where you want it.  Dealing with deep drifts and cars….not so much.  I think the snowblower attachment will go on before the next storm.  Too bad they don’t interchange easier.

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