The fun of ice making

The reason you always put the paint tank and pump outside. When a hose explodes and white paint sprays 20 feet in the air, the outside of the building is the only thing that gets messy. Except for the two guys who happened to be standing next to it when it happened.

Later,

JH

Header change again

Yep, curling has arrived with the start of the ice install yesterday. The good, a couple of new toys to play with including a nipper and a battery powered back pack sprayer. The bad, we are painting over the Labor Day weekend and it is tough getting help. Could be some long days. The ugly, well not too ugly. We seemed to be doing a lot better with the slush problem this year.

All will hopefully be done some time next week. Then the ice will be in use starting on Sept. 12.

And of course it is still baseball season. The Phightins' are holding a nice lead for the division.

Later,
JH

Heading change

You probably didn't notice. The heading changed, yep just three more weeks till the whole process starts again. We are going to have to ice again a bit early. That means the ice installation will start around the 1st of September. A couple of cleanup project prior to the compressor going on. Our scraper blades are still in Canada at this point as well.

Everything will get done and then it will back to the cold, windowless environment that we all love so much.

Later,
JH

Need more TVs

An almost perfect day today. Headed to the club to push some water to the drain on the finally melting ice. Home in time to watch the end of the 3-4 game, Norway vs Swiss. This afternoon is the semi final of the Men's Worlds, the Masters and the last two derby preps - Blue Grass and Ark. Derby. Then off to a fondue dinner with friends. Oh yeah and it is raining so no guilt about not doing a little yard work.

Tommorow more of the same. Head to the club in the morning to close off the heater vents to keep the birds from nesting in them. Then the Masters and the final of the Worlds. Maybe squeeze in a little yard stuff tomorrow.

Now if the Phightins' would just start to win all would be right with the world.

Later,
JH

It's frozen

So, head to the club last night to push some water down the drain and get the clean up started. Well, not so much. Seems our compressor system never went off. So, we still have ice.

We share the system with the hockey rinks next to us. The entire system is computer controlled. Guess they didn't get the settings quite right. Hopefully sometime today they will get it figured out and it will start to melt. Until then, guess people could go and skate if they wanted.

Later,
JH

It's melting

The compressor is off. The rocks are off the ice. There was skating and broom ball and a cookout. Yes, the season is finally over after an extra month when we put in early ice for September. Now the clean up starts. Push water to the drain, get the logos out of the ice and wash the floor at some point.

On the horsie scene, The Pamplemousse is out for at least six months. I Want Revenge had a huge Wood Memorial, Pioneerof The Nile looked okay in the Santa Anita. Quality Road had his Beyer figure upgraded to a 111 for the Florida Derby. Those three are on top right now. Time to start looking at who will finish strong to knock one of them off the board. And who to throw out.

The Phils weren't phightin' too good last night. Long season.

Later,
JH

"new" rocks

Got to play last night for the first time since we did the rocks. Wow, what a difference. Faster, more glide and the houses are nice and lively now. The next step in the process is to try and get them matched up a little better. Have all the blueprints we did after we sanded them. Will need to go through them and see what the differences are in running surface width. Then move some handles around to get some better pairings.

If you are coming to the Golden Handle expect 24-25 second ice with about 4 feet of curl on draws. Still a little too much curl on takeouts but that will calm down as the rocks get a bit more play.

Now just have to retrain all the newbies in how to throw a handle on these rocks. Need 3 to 4 revolutions or they just wander around down the ice.

Later,
JH

Multi-media curling

This was the day yesterday.

At the club at 7:30 to scrape, hang out to watch some of the curling to get an idea of how the rocks are now. Home for lunch, interwebz stuff and a quick nap.

Scotties comes on at 3:00 so have to watch that of course. US trials start at 6:00 so Mrs is following on the crackberry. Scores and tweets from Derek.

Dinner, another quick nap. Scotties back on at 10:00 with Team Canada playing. Mrs. following the men's trials games on the crackberry. Jennifer Jones steals two in some end at midnight so I can go to bed.

Today will be much the same. Watching the Scotties, following twitter, listening to the audiocast from the Trials and also have to run up to the club for an ice committee meeting.

Derek is also posting on the Nutmeg blog from the Trials if you are interested.

All curling all the time at for the next week or so.

Later,
JH

A rousing success

Went to the club this morning to scrape and watch the first game with the reconditioned rocks.

What a difference, more speed, more glide to the rocks and the houses are more reactive.

Will wait to see what happens after a few more games and layers of pebble but hard to believe it will slow down much. Most of the Nutmeggers on the ice where throwing draws through the house for the first couple of ends. A good sign that it is much faster.

Can always add some more curl now that we have the speed but won't do that till next year.

Later,
JH

Adventures in ice making

Tonight starts the big adventure for Nutmeg. We are "doing" the rocks. What that means is we are attempting to get more speed out of them and perhaps a bit more curl. How is that done? By applying a bit of sandpaper to the bottom of the rock in just the right fashion. We have a couple of experts coming in to show us the technique and do all the rocks.

Finally got to prove to certain doubters that "it is not the ice" which has been my mantra for two years. The doubters borrowed a good stone from Canada and then a bunch of people threw it. Guess what, it was a whole lot faster than our rocks.

So off to the club tonight for a few hours of rock work. Even if we can get a extra second of speed that would be great. Crossing my fingers.

Later,
JH

Big day results

The Phils win the first game with very little offense. A good sign as they typically lose those games.

Our first time on the ice was fun and we didnt get hurt. Always a bonus.

The ice is not curling as much. Lots of variables to look at to determine what to do. Will keep watching and trying secret things to see what happens. It is faster which is nice.

Later,
JH

busy, busy, busy

It has been really busy recently. Spending quite a bit of time at the club getting the ice all set for the year. Just a lot of clean up type work and of course more plumbing issues. Seems the valve on the hot water for pebble decided to give up the ghost. So, more repiping to do, oh joy.

Got the new blade for the scraper all set for use this week. Yes, another new toy to play with and it should make a big difference. Now just have to wrap up the old one for the trip to Winnipeg to get sharpened. Still haven't figured out exactly how to ship it there without it costing a million dollars.

Also started a new work project which is based in Trenton, NJ. So, have been making a lot of trips down there for meetings and such. Yesterday was a nice short 14 hour day of driving, meeting, driving.

Upcoming is the annual LBI trip for the year. Should be a lot of fun as always. Also will be getting the new kittie in a couple of weeks after we return from LBI.

And the Phightin's are tied for the wild card and half a game back of the Mutts. If the Mutts collapse again this year shouldn't they fire Charlie Manual? Isn't that the reason they dumped the last guy.

Later,
JH

By request

This is the final process, sealing everything in. So, all the lines and paint are down.

We think it came out pretty well this year. Looks nice and bright. Shorty would call it dog shit, which is a term of endearment for him.

The picture on the right is gonna be the newest member of the family. Haven't really decided on a name but "skippy" leads the way right now.

Later,

JH

One more day

Well the last couple of floods went really sloooow. Just too hot outside on Friday. So had to do another flood on Saturday morning and one last night as well. Just being extra careful that we got all the lines under enough ice. But today is scraping to get all the high spots, then pebble and scrape a bunch. Will put the rocks down to cool and should be good to go for Monday.

Ice tech clinic went really well yesterday. I think everybody got something out of it. First time in 30 years that there was a US sanctioned ice clinic in the GNCC. 23 ice men and women in attendance representing 12 different clubs. Lots of good discussion and exchange of ideas.

Time to catch up on the Phillies and hope they can pull off a sweep of the doubleheader today.

Later,
JH

Inquiring minds

DC wants to know how it went. It was stressful but successful. The white went down without a hitch, we painted the hog lines and shut down on Wednesday at 5:30p. Today was a bit longer. Painted the houses, laid all the lines, sealed everything in, just got home.

In the home stretch now, a couple more floods tomorrow and then it just scraping and pebbling to get to flat.

So, back in the chair tomorrow although there are a few minor things to do while the floods freeze. Some clean up, a little scraper maintenance and vacuum the side boards.

All in all a very successful and problem free ice install. I didn't even yell at anybody until today. Not bad.

Later,
JH

Hard at work making ice

This is the hardest part of the ice making process. No, really, this is the part where you wait for three hours or so for the water to freeze. It is just boring. In the past two years as a new club there was usually some project that took up the time. Now, we just hang out and enjoy the weather.

At least today went smoothly and ended early. Tomorrow starts the stressful bit as we paint the white and cut the circles. Both of which we have never done without Shorty's expert guidance.

Thursday is circle painting and putting in the lines. Friday is the final couple of leveling floods.

Later,
JH

Knock on wood

So far so good. Getting a bit a break this morning as ice girlfriend and the engineer had the early shift for the first flood. The engineer brought in the router setup yesterday. What a great job he did. A nice copy of the setup that Shorty used to cut the circles. It will be put into action Thursday after we paint the white and seal tomorrow.

More pics later as Mrs. JHcurl is still resting.

Later,
JH

It's Here!

A nice sunny day outside with temps around 80. We will be in the windowless big fridge for most of the day.

The ice making starts today. Seal the edges, put down a list coat of ice on the floor and set the hacks. At least there are lots of new toys to play with including a laser temperature gun. I did forget to order one toy, the battery powered backpack sprayer. The manual pump one works fine but it really gets tiring when sealing the lines.

First year on our own without the expert guidance of Shorty. Will be installing his signature hog line, a nice red one.

Later,
JH