From sheep barn to hockey rink, Manitoba family finds way to enhance their winter skating
A Manitoba family has taken their love for hockey and brought it to their backyard.
In the past, Dave Rawlings, from Hamiota, Man., would take his young sons skating on a slough on his property.
While they enjoyed the winter sport, he said it would take several hours to clear the snow. So, three years ago, Rawlings decided to turn to the old sheep barn they have into a skating rink.
"We flooded a 12 by 24 section of it just to see kind of see how it would go," said Rawlings. "It was good, we used it lots."
Dave Rawlings built a miniature hockey rink inside a sheep barn on his property in Hamiota, Man. (Source: Dave Rawlings)
The following summer Rawlings went to work converting the barn into a fully functional miniature hockey rink.
"We started by taking out sheep manure, hay, straw, and junk that we collected for 10 to 12 years," he said.
"Then we did some reinforcing and built some walls and I spent the better part of the summer, I painted all the boards."
Dave Rawlings built a miniature hockey rink inside a sheep barn on his property in Hamiota, Man. (Source: Dave Rawlings)
Rawlings said getting the ice into the barn is rather easy, as they just spray the water in and wait for it to freeze thanks to the cold Manitoba weather.
He said being able to skate inside makes all the difference in the winter.
"You don't have to deal with wind, you don't have to deal with snow. Even when it's minus 30 out, if you're skating in the day, the sun warms up the temperature up by eight to 10 degrees in the rink, so it makes it a lot more enjoyable to skate.
Rawlings noted there is more to the barn than just the ice rink as they have also set up a heated dressing room and have added a laser light over centre ice.
A heated dressing room inside a sheep barn that also features a hockey rink. (Source: Dave Rawlings)
He said his kids are enjoying having their own personal rink and they are able to bring friends over all the time to skate as well.
Rawlings said he plans on continuing to upgrade the rink every year to better the experience for his family.
Dave Rawlings built a miniature hockey rink inside a sheep barn on his property in Hamiota, Man. (Source: Dave Rawlings)
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
For the first time in report's history, Canada's air quality worse than U.S.
Air quality in Canada is now worse than in the U.S., according to the 6th Annual World Air Quality Report. Of the 15 most polluted cities in the two countries, 14 were in Canada.
A newspaper says video of Prince William and Kate should halt royal rumour mill. That's a tall order
Prince William and his wife Catherine have been filmed at a farm shop near their Windsor home, The Sun newspaper reported -- the first footage of Kate since she had abdominal surgery for an unspecified condition two months ago.
WATCH LIVE As former prime minister Mulroney lies in state, public tributes in Ottawa begin
Members of the public who wish to pay tribute to Brian Mulroney can visit his casket in Ottawa starting this afternoon.
BREAKING Roy McMurtry, former Ontario attorney general, dies at 91
CTV News has confirmed that former Ontario attorney general Roy McMurtry has died.
Hertz CEO out following electric car 'horror show'
The company, which announced in January it was selling 20,000 of the electric vehicles in its fleet, or about a third of the EVs it owned, is now replacing the CEO who helped build up that fleet, giving it the company’s fifth boss in just four years.
'You ask for your money, they disappear': Ontario man loses $17K to AI crypto scam
A Toronto man is spreading the word of a cryptocurrency scam that lures victims using AI-generated news sites after he lost $17,000 in investments.
Images taken deep inside melted Fukushima reactor show damage, but leave many questions unanswered
Images taken by miniature drones from deep inside a badly damaged reactor at the Fukushima nuclear plant show displaced control equipment and misshapen materials but leave many questions unanswered, underscoring the daunting task of decommissioning the plant.
DEVELOPING February inflation rate slows to 2.8% as price growth unexpectedly eases
Canada's annual inflation rate unexpectedly fell to 2.8 per cent last month, amid sharp declines in cellular and internet services as well as slower grocery price growth.
High thoughts: The habits of Canadian cannabis users are revealed in a new StatCan report
Statistics Canada has conducted a series of surveys to measure the impacts of legalized cannabis since the Cannabis Act took effect in 2018. The latest one, the 2023 National Cannabis Survey, sheds light on users' preferences and habits last year.