The answer to the last thing worth pondering finally came, although not satisfied with the result, life still goes on.
After a late breakfast, Chen Zhou, with his tools and his "little tail" Lai Fu, went down the mountain to look for clay.
In his hometown, earthen houses are usually built with rammed earth bricks.
The materials for these earthen bricks are loess, broken straw, water, and a little wood ash, mixed and stirred together.
When making earthen bricks, the prepared earth is piled into the middle of rectangular rammed earth panels, then several adult men use wooden pestles to tamp it down. Once a layer of earth bricks is pressed solidly enough, another layer is gradually added.
The walls of these rammed earth houses are very thick, about seventy to eighty centimeters, though they look clumsy and dirty, they are very practical.
