28 Coats, and Lots of Snow...

 Just when we thought the flooding and season was over. With the warm weather for a week then hit with snow for two days, the cold weather came back for another flooding on Sunday night.

Kurt tried to blow the heavy drifted snow on Thursday last week. After 2 hours and throwing the snow around he gave up and called in for heavy machinery. Even the bobcat took 2.5 hours to clear.

Friday afternoon the sun came out and we off-loaded the bobcat.

Kurt was supervising the operation

Cold enough to put down three coats of H2O.

Let's see if we can flood Thursday night if it stays cold enough.

Keeping the hose on the ice,

Kurt

A Toast to Dave Anderson

 This past Thursday January 29, 2026, marked the anniversary of Dave Anderson's passing. Dave passed away suddenly on this day January 29, 2023.

Bill, Andrew G., Andrew P., Matt, Branden, Craig, and Kurt.

Dave Anderson's wife has a bench just behind the ball diamond.

The ice looks like it may not survive the warm spell,

Keeping the hose on the ice,

Kurt

25 coats, Three Last Night...

 We were able to lay down 3 coats last night with the help of a great team.

Taking a look back to 2025 January at this time we had 37 coats.

Bill, Craig, Andrew P., Andrew G., Adrian, Jeff, Kris, Peter, and Kurt. The ice is really nice right now! The weather over the past week has kept it in good shape. 

We are always amazed at Kris' technique in getting the water to do what he wants, with the dance moves of a Newfoundlander's jig.

Kurt on the lower doing the last coat 

Bill showing us how to layout the hose properly for the next coat. Thanks Bill, I hope others see this.

The hand-over on the nozzle end.

We found the edges...

Adrian putting his back into it!

We are getting some warmer weather this week. Let's plan for Thursday night.

Keeping the hose on the ice,

Kurt

Still 22 coats...

 Well, as luck would have it, the snow started falling as soon as we finished the scraping of the last lower rink. 22 coats only to date... it might be a record low for the end of January.

The team made quick work of clearing off the rinks, all 7 of us cleared the white stuff in 33 min according to Andrew G,

The brave team at -20ºC. Andrew P., Andrew G., Chris, Matt, Kris, Bill and Kurt.

We will go again Monday if it doesn't snow before then.

Keeping the hose on the ice,

Kurt

22 Coats! Finally the Water is Flowing Again...

 After almost 2 weeks of water shortage and a week of crazy warm temperatures, we were able to put down some water on the thirsty sheets of ice. Surprisingly, the warm temperatures didn't do a lot of damage, and that the ice held up well.

Craig, John, Andrew P., and Adrian were able to squeeze in a light and medium coat last night. They had to shut off the lights to prevent skaters from lacing up too soon as the water slowly changed its form at -8ºC in the night sky.

Craig's nice photo.

Let's look at hitting it again on Thursday to keep the ice smooth and usable.

Keeping the hose on the ice,

Kurt

WATER BAN...

 

No flooding since Last week!

Due to the water ban in Calgary we are not allowed to use water to maintain the smooth surface. So we all saved a big of water at home, (waiting for the shower to warm up- putting buckets to save the precious H2O), we carried our vessels down for a "scrap 'n patch" last night.

Surprisingly, the condition of the thirsty surface was in great shape. We told the group of skaters what we were doing to fill in the holes and they were happy to help us scrape before we started repairing the surface.

Kris, (and Kootney his dog), Andrew P., Andrew G., Peter, and Kurt made quick work of learning the technique of sprinkling water and mixing the scrapings into a slurpy texture before smoothing with a puck.(As Seen On TV).

Oh NO! "Kootney! Bad Dog. 

Well, the ice may not get water for a while, waiting for the water ban to be lifted,  the spirits of the dedicated crew at Rosemont are high.

Keeping the hose on the ice,

Kurt