Mother Nature seems is finally cooperating now for the volunteers at the Castleton Sports Club.
The volunteers including Jeff Turney, his son Ryan, Stacy King, Josh Driver along with his father Gord have been working through the day and into the evenings hoping to get a good base of ice for the youth of the area this year.
On Friday, January 7, 2022 the volunteers started in the afternoon and worked well into the evening bringing thousands of gallons of water for the outdoor rinks located in Castleton.
“Mother Nature has been against us a little bit this year,” said Jeff Turney.
“We haven’t had the good, cold temperatures.”
Using two mini-concrete trucks Turney owns, water has been shuttled to the rinks from a nearby creek.
Because there hasn’t been the extreme cold weather, Turney said they are using more water for the base.
Because of COVID the club is trying to create four ice-surfaces with approximately 50,000 square feet.
With the temperatures hovering around – 14 Celsius they were hoping to have enough ice for at least one rink on Saturday.
“We’re getting really, really close to be able to turn on the green light and get everybody going.”
Turney said the turn-around time for filling and dumping the water from the cement trucks is approximately six minutes.
Each one hold approximately 850 gallons of water.
“The last time we put down about 30,000 gallons of water and the ground just inhaled it.”
“But now it’s absorbed it, it’s frozen and everything we put on the top is staying on the top.”
After creating outdoor rinks for several years, Turney said there is a science to it.
“For people who are doing backyard rinks you can manage a little bit father,” but with the Castleton Sports Club they take it to the extreme.
“There isn’t to many backyard rinks that are 50,000 square feet,” said Turney as he shuttles for more water.
On Thursday the temperatures started to drop, but through Friday the cold temperatures helped “tremendously.”
The volunteers brought in approximately 10,000 gallons of water on Thursday.
“We are watching temperatures like a hawk. We know when we can get on it and when we can’t get on it.”
“It’s a science – that’s for sure.”
Author: Pete Fisher
Has been a photojournalist for over 30-years and have been honoured to win numerous awards for photography and writing over the years. Best selling author for the book Highway of Heroes - True Patriot Love
