Must have been four or five. Dad came home one day with two hammers and a bucket full of nails. Since we burnt wood we had plenty of ammunition in the basement. We hammered nails all winter till the bucket was empty. Thought we were hot stuff.
  Next spring the dad decided we could use a garage. Never dawned on my brother and myself that all that nailing all winter was going to lead to a lot more come spring. We did a pretty fair job,mother was a little anxious while we were up on the roof but got it done.  Not the easiest of tasks since we used beech for the roof boards. Thank god it was green. I believe when it dried the garage was a foot shorter.  Kept our old nail log around for years.
 Every time after when dad would bring us some tools we thought long and hard about
learning to using them.
 Drive by the old homestead occasionally and look at that garage. Pounding nails and cutting boards with a hand saw at five or so.