The day was bright and sunny, and Li Xiang was in his backyard stacking straw.
The rice straw had been dry for a while, but he'd been too busy to stack it.
It was actually a skilled task. You couldn't just throw it together and expect it to turn out well.
Stacking straw required at least two people working in tandem: one person on top of the stack and another on the ground.
The person on the ground would forcefully toss up bundles of straw, and the person on top would catch and place them. There was a real art to stacking it so it was firm and wouldn't collapse.
A skilled person could build a remarkably sturdy stack, one that would stay standing even if mischievous kids dug a large hole at its base. A poor job, however, might topple over after a few days in a strong wind, or if a passerby or an animal bumped into it.
