For some, the winter months can seem long and dreary, as cold temperatures and heavy snowfall keep people tucked inside in front of the fireplace. To combat the winter blues, a group of curling enthusiasts from Lunenburg, N.S. have come up with a plan.
It all began four years ago on a winter day. Peter Mader called his buddy Peter Wagner with an idea to start curling on Lake William, which was right in front of his house.
“I don’t know how we came up with the curling idea, because none of us had ever curled before,” says Mader. “It just seemed like a good idea, something we could do in our own backyard.”
The pair started their own curling club called the “Hicks in the Hack” on the frozen lake. Mader says it wasn’t long before the idea caught on.
“Our neighbours could watch us as we curled and they enjoyed the evening of entertainment under the lights,” says Mader.
“It’s great fun,” says curler Jeff Langille. “A good way to put ole winter away, instead of sitting home watching TV.”
While the games were fun, making them happen was a chore.
“It was a lot of work,” says Wagner. “We had to lug the lights, the cords, the hoses down to flood it, the stones, lug them out on the ice and every night lug them back.”
The following year, the club looked to improve from their humble origins and moved their game to a sheet of ice in Wagner’s backyard. Now, in their fourth year, that sheet of ice has a roof, lights and stands.
“You get five or six guys working here, working together, you can accomplish a lot every night,” says curler Gary Seamone.
The guys didn’t just build their own rink, they also had to get creative and make their own equipment, starting with the curling stones.
“Things were a little slow that winter, so I tried to make some curling stones out of concrete,” says Wagner. “I used two salad bowls, cut the bottom out of one and bolted them together and poured the concrete into them.”
Wagner added a metal insert to the cement for a running surface and the rocks work so well, the group has even shunned official curling stones they were offered a week ago, in favour of their homemade ones.
“This is the fourth year we’ve used them and their holding up, we can’t break them,” says Wagner.
Their creativity didn’t stop at the stones. The men also needed to figure out how to make the coloured rings in the ice for the house.
“We were using food dye, or bingo daubers, and every time it got soft weather or rained, our lines would go,” says Mader.
He sent away for coloured tissue paper to make the rings just two weeks ago.
“We water those down, stuck them fast and flooded over the top, a lot less work,” says Wagner.
Wagner and Mader came up with one idea after another, including a homemade Zamboni and a garden sprayer for a pebbler.
When word got out about the new digs and the winter fun, it lured new curlers to the group.
“What drove me to it was everybody’s excitement, the thrill about the game,” says curler Don Jackson. “And, I said, ‘I have to learn how to play this game.’”
“It’s gotten a little bigger than we anticipated,” says Mader. “We didn’t see this when we first started.”
“We’re all in it for fun. We change teams every night we play, we draw our names out of a hat,” says Wagner.
As the crowds got bigger, then men decided it was time to add some bleachers for the fans.
“They need heated seats,” suggests Sandy Graman.
While the Hicks in the Hack are all about the social aspect of the game, it doesn’t mean there isn’t a little competition at their annual bonspiel. This year, the Mader Foursome defeated the Wagner Team in -23 degree temperatures.
“My husband didn’t get home until 3:30 in the morning,” says Peter Mader’s wife Rosemary. “He was the champion.”
Their trophy, the Lake William Tankard, holds court in the club house - Wagner’s garage.
“You think of the Olympics and all those places where you get a gold medal, but bragging rights in the community, that’s got to be more satisfying than a gold medal,” says Mader.
With files from CTV Atlantic's Rick Grant
