Image by PJMixer via Flickr

It is not unusual to get mad after barely missing a putt. You get mad, tap it in and then you really get mad as the dickens. Unfortunately, anger can negatively affect your performance on the next hole and ruin a nice day. Rather than try to repress your anger, think about controlling it. Use a three step reprimand process to turn anger into a positive emotion. Here is how it works.

1. Go ahead and get angry after barely missing a putt.
2. Tap the ball in.
3. After tapping the ball in, and while retrieving the ball from the cup, silently reprimand yourself. (You idiot. Expletive. Expletive. For crying out loud what were you thinking? Expletive. You stink…)
4. As you step away from the cup begin a transition to positive thoughts… (That is not like me. That is not the Jim Payne I know. I’m better than that…). You do this for three steps.
5. As you take the fourth step away from the hole immediately begin a positive thought process directed toward correcting what you did wrong. The correction must be positive not negative. Examples of positive correction: Head down. Sweet spot. Smooth as silk. Examples of negative corrections are: Don’t look up. Don’t hit it on the toe. Don’t drag the putter.

If you are still mad at yourself as you take the fourth step and carry your anger to the next hole, shame on you. You have lost control of your own thoughts and allowed the missed putt to enter the privacy of your own mind. Remember, it is normal to get mad, but beyond the third step negative emotion will negatively affect your performance on the next hole. You can’t control the ball, you only influence it. But you have 100% control on how you respond and react to any putt. Golf is too good a game to let putting get you down.

maple tools

…well the niece and nephews were out last weekend and they don’t get out that much to the country so I wanted to have some fun outdoorsy things to do to keep them busy..there is always the beaver dam, collecting eggs from the chickens ( which they always seem amazed by! ) and since it is maple syrup season I figured I would tap some trees and show them how to get maple syrup for themselves..or at very least how to tap a tree and then I told them the process the sap goes through to become syrup.

The tools needed are:

• a wood drill with a bit that is slightly bigger than the tap you are going to put in
• maple taps..I bought mine off of eBay.com second hand 2 years ago
• a hammer to tap in the tappy tap tap
• small amount of wire
• wire snips
• container to hold sap..mine are ghetto…I had no proper containers so I had to improvise.

tap that tree!

It is really simple to actually..make sure the drill is charged. mine lasted 2 taps. At least it was enough to show the kids how it worked. Drill the hole 2-3 feet off the ground on the south side of the tree that gets sun. Syrup runs when it is hot and the sun helps with that. Have you ever noticed that when you sit in the sun for a couple of hours you seem warm? Well the same technology which powers the sun can also make sap run up the inside of a tree! Technology at work for you!! Yes, so 2-3 feet. Drill the hole..I go around 2 inches in.

Tap in the tap. Just tap it in. Tap, tap, tap…just tap it in. It wants to go into the tree..its the taps hole so just tap it in. Sorry..once I started it reminded me of Happy Gilmore. If you have no idea what I am talking about just smile and nod. ANyway, tap it until it is firmly set as it will have a litre of sap in a container attached to it so you want to be sure it is secure.

this is actually a tap that is slightly too big..not my best work

Take a nail and make a hole in the container you will be using to attached it to the tap you just tapped in.

make a hole for running wire

I used a large cranberry bottle, a small water bottle and a pasta sauce bottle to collect the sap. Ghetto! I am sure that a professional maple syrup producer would not be pleased to see me using whatever I could..but ( once again ) my philosopy is to get it done, not make it pretty..at least in the first iteration. ( which is why my posts also have so many spelling mistakes! )

attached!

Put wire through holes and attach it to the tap so that the drip from the tap goes into said container.

That is it really..repeat the process on as many trees and taps you have..now you wait for warm days and cold nights!

ghetto! I guess it is good to improvise..if you have to!

Oh..some of you might be wondering how to know which trees to tap since it is winter and some of the maple trees are difficult to identify without leaves on them..Well I have developed a sureproof winter method for maple tree idenitification…I memorize which trees are maples in the summer. It is foolproof! hehe.

hehe..this one makes me laugh..any port in a storm!

Gonna wait until I have a couple of days worth of sap saved before I reduce the sap and make syrup..don’t worry…I will post up!