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I watched a guy thatching a roof in the Netherlands years ago. It was so cool to watch. He was good at it. Had a lot of muscle memory in those arms. He just did it without thinking. We stayed there for at least an hour sitting on a grassy dyke just watching this guy work bundle by bundle along the roof. He would basically take a big bundle of thatch, tap it against the existing roof to get all the individual straws roughly lined up at the right angle, and plop it in place. Then he had what were essentially oversized hair pins that he stuck down in he thatch to hold it in place. After he had done a section, he took a long serrated knife, like a saw, and cut off all the thatch ends to make it even with the slope of the roof. Very simple and cool. Climbing the ladder with an armful of thatch looked awkward though.
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