My contractor has twin boys--Tyler and Austyn--that I have fallen in love with.  They are such gentlemen.  Thirteen years old, and they work along side their father Tony--who I truly admire and respect for the way he has raised his sons.  They work.  And are learning to do things most thirteen year old boys have never heard of.

The other day, I went over to my new house and one of them was ripping out tile with some sort of a power jack.  The other one was sweeping up the mess.  Yesterday when I went over, both of them were on top of the kitchen counter ripping off wall paper above the cabinets.  And it was stuck really bad.  They had spray guns to wet it down and soften it so that they could get a grip.  I've removed lots of wallpaper in my past, but I never saw paper that was so stuck and hard to remove as this was.  But I am sure the boys will get it done.  They were sticking with it every time I went over.

All the while their dad was sanding down the concrete where the tile had come up.  Getting it smooth and prepped to lay new tile.  I hope they have it done by the end of the week.  But that may be a little ambitious.  It is a huge job.  It is a wonderful thing to watch a man training his sons how to work.  And their dad does a loving job of helping them learn.  It's a rare thing in today's world for a father to apprentice his sons.  In my day, it was the norm.  Boys grew up knowing how to do just about everything to keep a farm running.  Electrical wiring, plumbing, woodworking, building barns and helping with "House Raisings."

The entire town, or church, would raise a house from the ground to the rafters in a day.  The women would feed all of the workers breakfast, dinner and supper before the day was done.  Boys, and girls grew up knowing how to do things.  Everybody pitched in.  But that is rare today.

Most kids don't have a clue any more what they want to be when they grow up.  They go to school, but don't get a chance to apply anything they are learning to the real world until they graduate.  And if they to to college, it isn't any clearer to them.  As a counselor, I would get a new crop of college freshmen every fall, and ask them what they wanted to major in.  Every year it was the same:  "I don't know.  I just think I'll take the basics."  By the time they figured it out, they had wasted two years on stuff that didn't count.  And even then, many of them still didn't know what they wanted to do.  Sad.