The first bed in my house
The first bed in my house
Liang Ximin
1975, my house was overturned, and the original low pure adobe house was built into a half brick and half adobe tile house.
Beneath the foundation and windowsill are bricks. There is only a new layer of bricks outside, and half of them are old bricks inside. The four corners of the house and the frames of doors and windows are also new bricks, made of sand and lime. The main body of the wall is adobe, made of earth. The exterior wall is covered with wheat straw mud, and the room will be covered with a layer of white ash. Adobe is made of loess, more than two inches thick, half a foot wide and more than a foot long. Frame it with a wooden frame, sprinkle some ash, fill in the wet loess dug from the ground, pour water for a few days, hammer it with a square stone with a wooden handle seven or eight times, tamp it firmly, and pile it up one by one to dry. This is the main material for building walls. We call it "Huti". A few months before you build a house, you have to ask someone to play "Huti" for more than ten days. Put in a few thousand dollars, it will be enough, and then dry it for several months until it is completely dry. Some people's "tiger body" is particularly strong, as hard as bricks. Some people can't. "Huti" is often broken when it is carried on the wall. I don't remember clearly the scene of climbing purlin, nailing rafters, taking rain rice and mud tiles, but I remember clearly the scene of beating "Tiger Brother".
After the three tile-roofed houses were built, a heatable kang was built in the east room, which was connected with the stove and was considered as a heatable kang. There is still a pile of broken wood left in the yard. One day I went to my sister's house and saw a wooden single bed, which was quite good. I came back and looked at the miscellaneous trees in the yard. Can you make one, too
At that time, I graduated from junior high school and the college entrance examination had not recovered. In order to find a formal job, I dropped out of school to work as a temporary worker.
Seeing wood is almost enough. I even bought and borrowed several woodworking tools-saws, files, chisels, planers, and a millstone to grind the axe at home. First choose the wood of the bed. Cut two thick and straight rafters into a flat shape with an axe, and then slowly flatten and straighten them with a plane. Then choose the wood and bracket for the four legs and the bed, and do the same. Then refer to the beds of my sister's house and neighbor's house, saw the tenon with a chisel, and then made several railing boards and diagonal support fixing boards of the bedside with smaller wood. Finally, there was not enough wood on the bed board, so we put the long and short firewood together.
I can't remember how many days have passed, and finally it has become.
Unfortunately, the crossbar at the top of the bed was sawed according to the size in advance, and it broke suddenly when I chiseled the base: I tried to chisel the base into a rectangular hole, but it turned out to be a concave hole. In desperation, I had to make a mistake again and again, turning the half tenon of the bed leg into a full tenon. Although it does not affect the firmness, it is particularly ugly. Later, the carpenter's neighbor Kong Ge said that the wood should be made longer first, then the tenon should be wedged with glue, and then the excess part should be sawed off when it was dry.
This is the first bed in my family. I have slept for many years. My family wants to take it with them when they move from the old house to the building. After we left, the tenant used it for more than ten years. Last year, the tenant changed, and people changed their beds. This bed has been in the yard for several months. Considering that it is really impossible for anyone to use it again, I agreed to the suggestion of my classmates and friends and treated it as garbage.
When I made this bed, my mother once said, "Why don't you be a carpenter in the future?" I was working as a temporary worker in a plastic factory at that time, and I didn't know what would happen next. "No matter who you work for, it is generally not too hot in the shade in summer, and it will not feel cold when you work indoors in winter, and you can still eat."
I think it would be better to have a carpenter. However, I have never worshipped Master and my skills are not good. Will someone ask me for a job? Or do rough work like doors and windows. That's easier.
The following year, I finally found a formal job in a plastic factory. At that time, the yard made a small square table and four small benches out of old wood. After another year, I made three big tables with drawers and two small doors, which are still in the old house in the village. Last year in Tomb-Sweeping Day, he took photos when he visited his parents' graves. This is all my carpentry.
To outsiders, this tattered old bed is really rubbish, but in my opinion, it is as precious as a child. Neighbors and classmates hit them with sledgehammers. I wasn't there. My heart, it hurts so much that tears are coming down.