Simple, easy-to-follow instructions for building a compact (and removable) skating rink in your own backyard Driven in large part by the popularity of the NHL’s Winter Classic, outdoor hockey is enjoying an unprecedented revival. For a sport that began under the open sky, a backyard rink allows for a return to the origins of the game and can provide a memorable neighborhood gathering place and a place for players to train without the expense of indoor ice rental. In Backyard Ice Rink, blogger and professional rink builder Joe Proulx guides you through every step of building your own backyard ice skating rink. From the simplest wooden frame to elaborate tall-board rinks, from measuring the slope in your yard to constructing your frame using parts found at your local hardware store, Proulx makes the project easy to tackle. In addition to the four easy-to-follow photo-intensive rink plans, Proulx also covers ice maintenance, building your own bench and goals, teardown, and storage through the summer months.

Simple, easy-to-follow instructions for building a compact (and removable) skating rink in your own backyard Driven in large part by the popularity of the NHL’s Winter Classic, outdoor hockey is enjoying an unprecedented revival. For a sport that began under the open sky, a backyard rink allows for a return to the origins of the game and can provide a memorable neighborhood gathering place and a place for players to train without the expense of indoor ice rental. In Backyard Ice Rink, blogger and professional rink builder Joe Proulx guides you through every step of building your own backyard ice skating rink. From the simplest wooden frame to elaborate tall-board rinks, from measuring the slope in your yard to constructing your frame using parts found at your local hardware store, Proulx makes the project easy to tackle. In addition to the four easy-to-follow photo-intensive rink plans, Proulx also covers ice maintenance, building your own bench and goals, teardown, and storage through the summer months.

Essays on family and fun on a backyard skating rink by the popular hockey writer.

Photography book of Minnesota Hockey Rinks

2007 Best Children's Book of the Year, Bank Street College Day and night, Callie Cat ice skates on the pond in her backyard. She loves to ice skate, loves it more than chocolate cake, more than going to the mall—more than her friends can understand. That is, until the Honeybrook Ice Rink announces a contest, and everyone thinks it could be Callie's big chance! Now Callie practices day and night. She wants to win the big prize...doesn't she? Sometimes doing something you love is its own reward, as Eileen Spinelli's beautiful story demonstrates.

Nothing brings us home to the true roots of hockey as do the memories we have of the backyard rinks and the frozen ponds of our youth. In this collection of heart-warming and humorous essays, veteran sports journalist Jack Falla writes about how his own backyard rink has served as a bridge to family and friends, to the past, and to the game he loves. Here are stories of all-night floodings and new ice, toddlers learning how to stand on a first pair of blades, romance on the rink, the joy of a brilliant winter's day, and the sweet sadness of the last ice of the year. Falla also describes his visits with other builders of home rinks (including Walter Gretzky); laments the passing of the venerable Boston Garden, the inspiration for his own backyard ice palace; and lets us in on his secrets for building a home rink. "Home Ice is more than a hockey book. It is a book for readers as interested in the relationships and memories that bind us together, as they are in last night's scores.

“This is a joyful, spirited gem of a book, as bracing and glorious as a perfect stretch of ice.” –Newbery Honor author Joyce Sidman With the first ice—a skim on a sheep pail so thin it breaks when touched—one family’s winter begins in earnest. Next comes ice like panes of glass. And eventually, skating ice! Take a literary skate over field ice and streambed, through sleeping orchards and beyond. The first ice, the second ice, the third ice . . . perfect ice . . . the last ice . . . Twelve kinds of ice are carved into twenty nostalgic vignettes, illustrated in elegantly scratched detail by the award-winning Barbara McClintock.