I ce-hockey players and figure skaters bemoan the fact Wilton lacks a rink, but thanks to Leif Setter and several of his neighbors, they can often find skate-able ice on Kent Pond. Setter has been hauling his snow blower down to the pond and clearing the ice almost as long as he’s lived on the corner of Linden Tree and Ground Pine Roads. He bought his home in 1997, after driving by Kent Pond and seeing skaters on the ice there. “It was like a scene from a Norman Rockwell painting,” he recalls. “Then we saw the for-sale sign in front of the house, and that was it. We loved the location, right across from the pond—and we knew we would eventually build the house we wanted on the property.” Back then, his son was about four and his daughter just a year old, but he already had visions of them learning to skate on Kent Pond.

Setter grew up skating on a pond. “I’d go with my parents and the neighborhood kids. We played pond hockey after school. Back then, there were only seven TV stations and no computers, so we spent most of our time outdoors,” he says. The kids shoveled the snow, when necessary, and spent hours passing the puck around on the ice.

When he moved to Linden Tree Road, Setter bought a six-horse-power snow blower to plow his driveway. One winter day, after a snowfall, he loaded it onto his tractor-trailer, drove it down to the pond, and cleared a patch of ice to create a hockey rink. He’s become the official human Zamboni ever since. “I’m not sure if other people had been clearing the ice before we moved into the neighborhood, but I’ve been doing it after every snowfall for the last ten years,” Setter explains. Occasionally several other neighbors, including Kyle Pond—yes, that’s really his name—join him with their snow blowers. Setter recalls that the winter of 2007, the snowless winter, was the only year he didn’t have to plow.

When the snow cover is less than three inches, it takes him about an hour and a half. “Ice-hockey players tend to take up a lot of the ice so I clear an area for kids to play hockey and another for people to figure skate,” he says. He often plows at night after dinner. “I try to get down there with my blower within the first 12 to 18 hours after a snowfall. I’ve gone out as late as 12:30 a.m. The pond makes very scary noises late at night. The sound of the ice settling is like bones cracking.”

“I’ve blown the snow when it was minus 3 degrees with wind chill. The cold doesn’t bother me. I’m moving the whole time,” explains Setter, who works as a mailman in New Canaan. “I’m outside all day for work.”

Last year, he brought a generator and electric pump down to the pond, and using pond water, flooded the cleared areas to create an even smoother surface—Zamboni-like. When the pond freezes over, and before the first snow of the season, Setter says the ice is smooth as glass. “There’s an older gentleman who comes out then, and speed skates. He does laps; it’s about a mile and a half around. But after the first snowfall, it’s over,” he sighs.

So what motivates Setter to brave frigid temperatures and thwart Mother Nature? “I love being outdoors. I love the smiles I get from the kids. They come up to me and thank me; their parents thank me. I know a parent who missed the Giants play-off game because his son didn’t want to leave the ice,” Setter says with obvious satisfaction. His children, now older, both skate on the pond. His son plays ice hockey with friends. The son of his snow-blowing cohort Kyle Pond plays on a travel hockey team. “They’ve played here on the rink we’ve cleared,” Setter notes proudly.

From December through mid-March, the pond buzzes with activity. High-school kids skate in the afternoon, moms bring their younger children during the day, and on weekends whole families take to the ice. “Weekends can be crazy. Sometimes cars will be lined up along Linden Tree all the way to Route 33. We’ll have up to 125 people skating here,” he says. Last year, Setter started another tradition. With his tractor-trailer, he brought his gas grill down to the pond and cooked hot dogs and hamburgers for the skaters. His wife brought a cooler filled with hot chocolate, and they set up a fire pit with a roaring fire. It’s nothing less than a Norman Rockwell scene, 21st-century style.