To cover the roof with straw, reed, leaves, etc.

Straw, rushes, or similar, used for making or covering the roofs of buildings, or of stacks of hay or grain. / (Caribbean) Any of several kinds of palm, the leaves of which are used for thatching.

(idiomatic, ironic) An assertion that the speaker has personal experience or knowledge of a particular place or topic.

That is the way things happen

(idiomatic) Said in reply to something that one believes will never happen.

That is. / That has. / That was. / That does.

(nonstandard, dialect, e.g. Black Country, Northern Ireland) whose, of which, in dialects that require a human antecedent for 'whose'

That will.

That is the way things happen / Certain things cannot be changed, helped or improved; struggle and objection are pointless.

That is the way things happen.