December 17 Never give up”

December 17th is National Maple Syrup Day. There is also a Canadian Maple Syrup day on February 6th. I wrote a lot about maple syrup on that day called “I See a Sugar Moon a’sappin'”. Take a look back at a great book “The Maple Sugar Book” by Helen and Scott Nearling, 1950. It is the definitive book on Sugaring.

I thought I would just mention a few other books on Maple Syrup Day. “The Farm Woodlot” by E.G. Cheyney and J.P. Wentling, published 1926; and “We Farm for a Hobby…and Make it Pay” by Henry Tetlow, `1944. Both of these books give advice on growing Sugar maples to use as a crop. Sugar maples are very slow growing maples, and Tetlow claimed that Silver maples have a more robust flavor, and grow in less than half the time as Sugar maples. There are also rules on how far apart to grow the trees.

My other two books showing are “Forest Products” subtitle “The Harvesting, Processing, and Marketing of Materials other than Lumber, including the Principle Derivatives, Extractives, and Incidental Products in the United States and Canada.” by Nelson Courtlandt Brown, 1950. The other is “Tree Crops” by J. Russell Smith, 1929.

An interesting fact in “Farm Products” was that one could lease the rights to tap Maple trees from National Forests. That process still continues today. Leases were for 10 years. “Tree Crops” shows us how to string up buckets to tap trees.

December 16th, 1903, the Wright Brothers flew their plane for the first time. The story is a good one, and is another Landmark Books from my childhood, “The Wright Brothers – Pioneers of American Aviation” by Quentin Reynolds, 1950.

The story tells how the Wright Brothers, famous as kids for making faster sleds than anyone else in Indiana. The Wright family moved to Dayton, Ohio, and then made their way to North Carolina as bicycle builders, and then airplane builders.

My father was in Navy Reserves for 24 years, out of Glenview Navel Air Base. He loved planes, especially the Blue Angels. One early April spring, Dad took us camping with the family pop-up camper, to Dayton, Ohio to see Wright-Patterson AFB, and the National Museum of the United States Air Force. The museum is the largest in the world. The airfield began in 1904, when the Wright Brothers did some experimental flying. Both Ohio and North Carolina claim birthrights to flying.

We always had a good time camping, but this time as we were towing to Ohio, we drove in a pretty strong storm. Folks that were with us, towing a full size trailer were ordered back because of high winds. Dad kept going. We set up, and that night there was at least an inch and half of sleet. It looked like snow from distance, but up close, you could see the little micro balls.

Nonetheless, while cold, it was a pretty cool event. That excitement wore off some as we had to shiver through part of the museum, looking at planes outdoors. Dad was never one to turn back from an adventure though.

Neither were the Wright Brothers. Their first glider crashed. Their second glider crashed. Third glider flew but had no power. The next glider had power and crashed. Three days later, after repaired, crashed again but was fixable. Then that plane flew first for 12 seconds, and then the brothers alternated for three more flights that day. The longest was for 852 feet. After that flight, the wind blew the plane over four times. It never flew again, but the Wright Brothers kept building planes.

Whatever your goals are…keep trying.

P.S. You cannot make a snowball with sleet if you want to hit your brother, but you can with graupel (soft hail).