Learning By Doing

After about five years, the older Mr. Jules Dehan died and Bornot decided to sell the dairy farm and quit farming. He asked me to stay on as maintenance and general handyman. And so for the next thirty-seven years I did all kinds of work of almost any trade. If I didn't know how, I learned by doing. If I wasn't very fast no one complained and I soon learned to do anything required.
Bornot and I worked together to clear out the cow stables and make them into a workshop. We had to use a compressed air jackhammer to break up the concrete cow stalls and I hauled many tons of concrete and rubble down to the lawn in front of my house. There, we raised the level of the lawn to replace a wooden porch that we had removed.
It was during this time that I did most of the renovating of the house where I lived. I tore out the flooring of the living room and hall as well as the partition and stairs to the second floor. It took most of one summer to rebuild and finish this job but I learned a great deal about carpentering and stair building.