I love winter!

[Todd Amunrud]

This is such a great way to do winter. I miss skating the river in the town I grew up in. 4 outdoor hockey rinks and just the river. We’d get dropped off after breakfast, skate all day and make it home by dinner just bushed.

http://Warroad Community Partners 2 ...OS 0:00 / 2:45

[Todd Amunrud]

Shoot link didn’t work.

This should get it there.

https://www.mprnews.org/story/2021/0...ting-neighbors

[smontanaro]

Nice. My wife's family is full of hockey players. (I can barely put one foot in front of the other on skates.) They will appreciate it.

[j44ke]

Those guys remind me of my brother-in-law. He doesn’t sit still well and built half the stuff in the neighborhood.

[Mark Walberg]

I used to skate at North Park Lake, north of Pittsburgh when I was a wee kid (late 50s).
They had a rope to keep us from skating on the this stuff.
Skating on the lake was fun. Not as smooth, no Zamboni, but just fun.
The ducks always kept a small spot from freezing, which I sure found to be amazing back then.
Of course, no one would ever allow skating there today.

[htwoopup]

For all of you who are from regions like Todd is talking about, this is all old hat.

But as a New York City person, I am fascinated by how this all works up in my little town in Quebec.

We have a big lake that is cleaned for a huge skating area, and several outdoor rinks (in addition to the indoor rink of course). The town is actually two main centers (St Jovite and Tremblant) of town separated by about 4 miles.

The village owns or leases a zamboni. They sold signage sponsorship to one of the bank branches in town.

I always chuckle when everybody dutifully and respectfully (they don't even mind/aggravation honk in the curvy parts) slows down to pass it on the main road where the limit is 90 km/hr when it is going from one center to another.

And when the lake our house is on freezes, some of our neighbors take turns shoveling/ brushing the snow off an area and then another neighbor runs a little aquarium pump to the cleared area from a hole cut through the ice on a long extension cord for an hour in the evening so the ice freezes smooth every night.

I am sure you all from up north just view this as normal, but I do marvel at it every time I see it.

And yet, no matter how hard I try I just can't figure out how to skate even 20 yards without falling.

[darkmother]

For all of you who are from regions like Todd is talking about, this is all old hat.

But as a New York City person, I am fascinated by how this all works up in my little town in Quebec.

We have a big lake that is cleaned for a huge skating area, and several outdoor rinks (in addition to the indoor rink of course). The town is actually two main centers (St Jovite and Tremblant) of town separated by about 4 miles.

The village owns or leases a zamboni. They sold signage sponsorship to one of the bank branches in town.

I always chuckle when everybody dutifully and respectfully (they don't even mind/aggravation honk in the curvy parts) slows down to pass it on the main road where the limit is 90 km/hr when it is going from one center to another.

And when the lake our house is on freezes, some of our neighbors take turns shoveling/ brushing the snow off an area and then another neighbor runs a little aquarium pump to the cleared area from a hole cut through the ice on a long extension cord for an hour in the evening so the ice freezes smooth every night.

I am sure you all from up north just view this as normal, but I do marvel at it every time I see it.

And yet, no matter how hard I try I just can't figure out how to skate even 20 yards without falling.

I love this. I wish it was normal where I live in Canada.

I'll leave by commenting that if I spoke french well, I would move to Quebec. As an anglophone, I was taken aback by the generosity and kindness of the people I engaged with.