I want to go back to my hometown to listen to the rain

After a burst of lightning and thunder, the sky was filled with pouring rain. Looking at the silent rain pouring down along the window glass, I suddenly wanted to go back to my hometown to listen to the rain.

When I was a child, the houses in my hometown were adobe houses, the walls were built with a block of adobe bricks, the roof was covered with green tiles, and the houses were simple and pure. Although the adobe house, the brick, and tile production are still very careful.

The mud used to make the bricks is the hometown's unique sticky loess. After digging the loess down from the slope, adding water and mixing it with straw cut into two or three inches long, then leading a plowing cow to step back and forth, the whole process is just like making pasta in the north before making noodles, and when the straw and loess are fully mixed and the mud is sticky enough, the bricks can be made. The tools for making a brick billet are simple: a wooden frame (brick mold) about 40 centimeters long and 25 centimeters wide with no bottom and no top, a handle on each side of the frame, and a small oar-like insert is the complete set of tools. The making of bricks is a laborious job, usually, after preparing a pond of mud, several friends and relatives will be invited to help, and the making will be finished within a day, otherwise, the mud will not work well when it dries. When making a group of two people, one person sends mud, another person put the wooden frame on flat ground, picks up a large piece of mud to smash down into the brick mold, with a plug board to the bucket of water, inserted around the brick mold once, and then the plug board to scrape the excess mud above the brick mold, with the soles of the feet with some water, the surface of the brick mold mud smoothing, and then lift the brick mold out, a brick billet is made, and then after the billet dried up After the bricks have dried, they are put up one by one.

The production of roof tiles is much more elaborate, and it is a skill that only those who have learned from a special teacher can make. The mud for making roof tiles is usually dug from the rice fields, which are grayish-black, fine, and sticky, and must be put in a pit with a plow or manpower to turn the mud into "cooked mud" before it can be used for billet making. The tools used to make the billets are very elaborate: a bamboo cylinder with a handle, which can be opened and closed in the middle, with four raised ribs evenly distributed on the surface, a white cloth sleeve on the outside, a wooden stake fixed on the ground, a small bearing set on the top, which is connected to a round platform raised in the middle, and a mud scraper fixed on both ends of the wood with steel wires. Tumbler's hand is very clever, they turn the good tile mud stacked together to make a rectangular earth platform, and then use the mud scraper on the surface of the platform from the beginning to the end, with two hands to copy the scraped mud pieces around the surface of the cylinder on the turntable, with a small wooden board dipped in water and scraped flat until the formation of an even thickness, smooth surface, and then a small blade along the cylinder scale line to cut off the mud above, and then Take the cylinder down and put it on the flat ground, fold the cylinder a little and take it out, then take off the cloth cover on the tile billet, a tile billet is pulled. After drying, gently fold along the ribs on the tile billet, and it becomes four tiles. Rough tile is stacked into the kiln, and after some flame and smoke of passion, tile is fired. Successfully fired tile is a greenish color, shining with a metallic luster.

When building a house, the walls are built with adobe bricks, and the brick joints are also cemented by mixing with extremely sticky loess. The walls of the roof were triangular, and the beams were built between the walls and the beams, and the beams were stapled with sandalwood strips, and when the tiles were laid, the tiles were handed up one by one between the sandalwood strips, and the reverse was the tile ditch, and the overlay was the tile ridge, and the roof was covered like a water wave.

The house is simple, but quite original taste. The large wooden window installed in the middle of the wall is a simple wooden square, usually open, the wind comes and goes, but also beam cool, the rising sun in the morning through the window pane, forming a column of light in the house. In winter, a large sheet of white paper was used to paste the window pane from the inside, and then a pond of firewood was built in the fire pit, and the family sat around together and enjoyed themselves.

In those days, the few tiled houses built by my parents throughout their lives were always the pride of the family. I once heard someone say, "house + love = home", and it was this simple adobe house plus the love of parents that made up a simple rural family. Despite the poverty of this home, she is the harbor that provides shelter for my soul; the sun that provides warmth for my mind and body; the lighthouse that guides my soul; the oasis that sees hope when I fail ......

In this adobe house living for more than a decade, nothing is more memorable than listening to the rain in the room! Perhaps everyone has little love for rainy days, but if you listen with your heart in one such adobe tiled house, you can find the romance of rainy days.