When I first joined this practice I commented to my nurse that our hall was kind of chilly. She replied by telling me that was because we share a hall with Steven (Dr. Nemeth) who is from Canada so he likes it cool. Fast forward: Steven and Cheryl have lived here for 15 years and have 13 year old twins. They (Steven & Cheryl) loved and played hockey before they had kids and Steven continues to do so. There is a USHL team in Kearney called The Storm so there is a large arena that has adult teams all the way down to the little kids. Their son is a goalie so as you imagine hockey is just plain BIG in their family. Oh, and did I mention that they are our neighbors? And, that for the past ten years he has built an ice “area” in their yard.

View from our back deck

Apparently he has it down to a science. The key, I am told, is the liner. It is quite pricey but if used right he is able to use it for four years and it must be white to reflect the light. We’ve been watching this all unfold over the past several weeks. I wish we were taking pictures of the process all along. The sides went up first, then the liner which was filled with inches and inches of water which he has been testing and watching as it has frozen. Then the sides were padded to protect the liner. The lights came out a few days ago and were anchored down for night-time play and the goals were thrown out there too but are blowin’ around. Supposedly he gets up at all weird hours during the night to add layers of water. I guess the players come from Kearney to skate/play and then they hop into the hot-tub afterwards and Cheryl feeds them through the kitchen window and the kids think it is the best!

By the way, hockey happened to be my first sport so that is kind of why all of the interest is there…granted that was a zillion years ago. My older brother and I both grew up on skates. I have a nephew now who is too.