Painting The Ice!

The day has finally come when we are painting the ice!  The anticipation mounts as volunteers sign in and write comments like "painting ice--woo-hoo!!!"

We arrive at 7am (which has become the norm for some of us) to take the Ice King for one last drive before painting.

Even I got a lesson, so I know how to use it! Women ice makers...how many of those are around? Hum...

Side note:  The last few days have been tough, as we have been troubleshooting a condensation issue. The dehumidifier arrived last week, but the city will take 2 weeks to come out to certify and turn it on. The ice was cold enough, but condensation has congealed on our nice (recently painted) white ceilings. And with the ceiling arches, we have spent much time working with rented and purchased  industrial fans to keep the air moving around the ceiling to reduce any droplets forming that could fall on the ice.

So back to today...Who says we don't shovel snow in Arizona? We were thinking about selling the wheel barrel of snow in the street or giving it to some lucky child who has never seen it before (happens regularly out here), but it melted in the 75 degree sun before we got very far.

More of the ice crew have arrived and are prepping the ice for the spray.

Tim Yeo, Master Ice Maker Extraordinaire (that what we call him), arrives to check the work that has been done and help us with the paint.

This 75 gallon unit is used to mix the deionized water and the white powdered paint. It's kind of like adding powdered sugar into the mixer in baking because it goes everywhere, right?

Each paint bag us 25lbs and we started with 7 bags. We filled the mixer up 3 times to cover the surface.

So what does it look like while this is going on? We use a very long hose that connects the mixer and the sprayers.  Two people hold styrafoam walls up and walk with Tim to block the spray from the walkways and viewing windows.

If and when the sprayers clog up, it's time to stop and clean them out.

Starting with the outside, it looks like this.

It takes a crew of about 10 people who make this happen, like the volunteers that keep the hose moving (not letting it melt the ice) in addition to the others mentioned prior.

So what else have we been doing? Well, some of us were spending our Friday night happy hour finishing up the ADA bathrooms. (Regular happy hour will be so boring after this club is built. Some of us don't remember what our "normal" life was like.)

The ceilings and walls are being finished in the warm room and kitchen. I think many of us can't wait to be done with drywall so we can start "prettying up the joint." (And I think we all need our cars detailed after all of the drywall dust we have tracked out over the last few months.)

And our rocks have arrived safely from our old hockey rink to our new dedicated curling club! (Who is jumping up and down with me?)

The first round of painting the ice is complete and it's only noon on Sunday. Some need to get to Briar parties while others continue to work. More to come over the next few days...'til then ice bloggers. ;)