Ice Back In; a Victory; a Playoff Berth Clinched

Well it was a good day for the Cyclones today. First the ice, they didn't get started making the ice until midnight Monday. Typically it's about a 72-hour process, so, tonight's game was 5 hours before that; not to mention that we try to finish the game prep by 5:00 or 5:30 to let it harden well. But that is not all - both teams had their morning skate this morning. So, literally 58 hours after starting the process, the ice was skated on for the first time. That's some speedy work done by the full-time crew.

It was a little shallow - less than one inch; but it was adequate to get by for one game. They'll flood water on it all day tomorrow and it will be back to normal by Saturday's game. New ice can be horrible to skate on. It's soft, yet can be brittle as the lower layers can sheer off. The players and coaches hate it. This morning, especially for Johnston's skate (which was second), it was really awful. Since it was so thin (about 5/8 inch) I couldn't risk shaving too deep after the Cyclones skated. We needed that precious depth. Then we shaved as low as we dared before applying a final 5 coats of water and getting off the ice by 5:00.

I guess the ice wasn't so bad for the Cyclones, since the won a decisive 7-1 victory. This victory secures their playoff berth for the fourth straight season in a row. Excellent work by Coach Weber and Coach Stork!

Ice OUT for the Circus

On Monday this week the compressors were shut down for ice melting. By Tuesday the ice had "popped" as it lost its bond with the concrete below. Bring on the Bobcat; the ice comes out in a few hours.

Bull Riding first, then the Circus while the ice is out. The ice can be covered for just rodeo, moto-cross, or monster trucks. They put down the "Pro Deck", then plywood and plastic, under truckloads and truckloads of dirt. But, for the circus the ice has to come out because of threaded tubes set in the concrete for eye-bolts used as tie-down points for parts of the circus.

Also, they say that despite the decking, plywood, and dirt, the elephants feet are still sensitive to the cold.

Now when the circus leaves, we'll have just a few short days to restore the ice for skating. It will be a marathon, non-stop process.