Making Ice for the Curling Club-Part 2 (Painting)

 After the ice is made, the ice is painted  white with a non-toxic paint that will melt into the sand base at the end of the season.  We used many volunteers to help us today.

We mixed the paint in this giant barrel with a paddle and a motorized paint mixer.

There are several motors and hoses leading to it to recirculate paint and send the paint out to the sprayer.  I and a volunteer manned the hoses as Hubby and Ice Maker got closer to us as they sprayed:

One coat applied (we apply 3-4)

1/2 sprayed and 1/2 plain ice.  One person sprays, one person mans the hose making sure they can run the sprayer smoothly without getting caught on equipment, hacks or house centres. 2 people man the hose on the backboard and lay it out so that no kinks occur, disrupting the spray.  1 person is at the door making sure the hose doesn't get squished and communicating between the outside paint crew and indoor paint crew.

Spraying.

Next up is finishing touches, then painting the houses in, marking the lines (spoiler alert, it's done with yarn!)

And finally putting the advertisements into the ice (including house advertisements).

Then we pebble, scrape, pebble scrape, pebble scrape until the ice surface is even and ready for Open House!