First skate was Dec. 3, last year was Dec. 7. Didnt make any upgrades this year, just wanted to get another season under my belt. I reused everything from last year, even the tarp. Next year will be bigger with boards on one end hopefully. We even got to skate on the pond this year which hasnt happened in some time, thats why I built the rink last year.
Ice was good until a few days ago when we got some wet snow mixed with rain. Now its frozen rough, but the forcast for the next few days is going to be in the 40s so Im not going to try and fix it now.