Family fun on the ice

Family fun

With eight kids, the Otis family of Roseville has almost enough people to field a hockey team. But competitive hockey is not what their back-yard rink is about. None of the kids (the oldest is 10) plays on an organized team. Still they're outside every day, skating, shooting pucks and making up their own games -- "Tornado Alley" is a favorite.

"It's just for family fun," said mom Deirdre. "We're surprised how few people have rinks who don't do hockey."

"With so many kids, it's a good physical outlet," said dad Sheff, who built the rink using surplus materials from his remodeling company.

The Otises had wanted to install a back-yard rink for a long time, but finally did it this winter. "It was almost a whim," Sheff recalled.

After a December snowstorm dumped 17 inches in their yard, the whole family started shoveling, and just kept going. Even Deirdre, 7 1/2 months pregnant at the time, picked up a shovel. "We had so much fun, we decided to go ahead and flood it," she said.

Sheff even made a Zamboni substitute -- a sheet of metal with a rope handle; he builds a campfire on it, then drags it around the ice to "iron" out the bumps.

Junior JaguarsIn summer, Dave Noble's Bloomington back yard is a garden filled with flowers. But in winter, it's TnT Arena -- named for his hockey-playing sons, Tate and Tyler. The rink was born a few years ago when snow melted and refroze, turning the landscape into an ice-scape, so Noble decided to flood it and make it skate-able.

"It gets bigger and more ambitious every year," he said. He's added floodlights for night skating, a luge track and, this year, boards. Tyler and his dad decorated them with hand-painted "sponsor" logos and "Nordy's Home" in honor of the Minnesota Wild mascot.

Tyler, Tate, their Jefferson Jaguar teammates and assorted neighbors use the rink for hours every day, even when the temperature plunges. On one recent subzero afternoon, Noble built a bonfire to keep the watching dads warm while eight kids skated.

"Everybody comes here," Noble said. "Saturday morning is huge." But often the skaters shoot balls, not pucks. "Not everybody has shin pads."

Keeping a traditionDave Roufs of Blaine never played hockey when he was a kid. But his in-laws are all "hockey people," he said, and his father-in-law has had a back-yard rink for 22 years. Seven winters ago, when Roufs' son started playing, Roufs decided to install a rink in his own yard.

Every year, Roufs adds to his rink. This year, he installed a streetlight over center ice. And if his "sponsors" look authentic, it's because he found corporate logos on the Internet, then used a video projector so that he could copy them in pencil, then in paint, on the boards. "It took three weeks, after work," he said. Next year, he plans to expand the rink's size, from 30-by-60 feet to 36-by-90 feet.

"We have a lot of fun, and it's great exercise," he said. "I'm going to keep doing it like my father-in-law --as long as my son is in the house." And with a younger godson and niece also enjoying the rink, "I might even do it after my son goes to college."