In every Yurt raising...

...a little rain must fall. Well, the other round in Round and Round is up. But not with out some good lesson's in patience, exhaustion, and weather prediction. With rain scattered through out the last two week we have had to run between getting as much done as we can, then scramble to protect our work against rain. But its up and its a beautiful addition to our home. Cindy and John gave us there left over Trex decking so we should be able to get the connecting deck up between the yurts very soon.

Do as you do

Well the summer is winding its way towards fall, its been a wonderful several months for us. We built our first yurt with another to go. Chloe is about to turn three (August 19th). Esmé is sitting up and is moving across the floor with what I would call more of a drag then a crawl but it seems to be just as effective.



Although the vision of our two yurts will not be complete until the end of August, the sense of “home” is well established. Between my jobs I have found I can bike every where I need to go and its been a great introduction to the surroundings. There is a lot of growth in the area but still many old farm houses, pastures with cows and horses, barking dogs, and old trucks. From my job with goats I have grown to recognize their particular smell, which I now find along my bike rides, and know that there must be goats not to far off.


The pictures included represent some of the last two weeks of building, the sense of summers end is pushing us forward with the second yurt. Next weekend should be the bamboo floors, with the yurt going up soon after. From then on all our priorities will revolve around preparations for fall. Evaluate our heating, establish drainage for a kitchen sink, build the covered deck to connect the yurts, take a better look at our electrical needs. It is fun to think about the winter, we had a good thunder storm several weeks back and it did feel a little more dramatic in our canvas castle.

No going back

Over the last few days it starting to feel like the move is official. The yurt is set up to accommodate us until the second one is built. What we don't need or can not find is stored in the loft of the barn. All of us in 315 square ft is going pretty well, we have a nice kitchen set up, with a small refrigerator, electric hot plate and microwave. Our Ikea shelves have created a nice sleeping area, and there is still room for a table, couch, and little office. Our compost toilet is currently set up outside the yurt, but is working very well and I think will be fine to have inside a yurt once space allows for it (see http://www.jenkinspublishing.com/humanure.html).

Angi has gotten a membership at a local gym which is also providing her with a shower, the girls and I are perfecting the sponge bath. Our indoor kerosene heater is working well to take off the morning chill, but we'll be investigating other heating sources through out the summer. This weekend we'll start work on our landscaping to create points of landscaping that will allow us to safely and responsibly empty our laundry water. We'll dig 10" basins several feet wider then any of our planting, then pile dirt into islands where plants are to go, then fill in the basin with mulch. Draining our greywater under the mulch. At the moment we'll create four points a center island of shrubs and grasses in front of the yurts, two fruit trees, and a some bamboo (see http://www.oasisdesign.net/greywater/). I have the hope of setting up a wood fired bath in the near future using a Japanese wood stove hot water heater and a stock tank.

Angi had gotten a garden started while the yurt was being built and its now looking really good. Collards, corn, beans, radishes, and carrots. Last night we had our first fire in a fire pit provided from John and Cindy made up of an old truck tire rim. It worked really well and we had a beautiful evening.

Angi has been working part time with her work as a therapist, and I have been asked to start next Thursday as a substitute custodian with the school district. I will also will go visit a local goat dairy farm this weekend that needs some one to give their barn a daily cleaning. It would be just a couple hours of work, but might round things out with the substitute work. The girls are awesome. Chloe is so far loving it here. With room to run, a grandpa to go visit, a big red barn, bugs, dirt, bats, barn cat, birds, snakes, creek, cherry tree, and strawberries. Esmé is the most darling baby on this side of the universe, and seems to be handling all of this very patiently with a calm that seems to say she is ok with it. It is strange to think that Chloe may have a few half memories of her first few years in Seattle, For Esmé it will be this yurt and property.

Yurt sweet yurt

Wow, what a couple of days. We had put our bets on this weekend’s weather report and came up with more then enough sun and dry weather to get our first yurt up. The how-to instructions were well detailed. But as first time yurt builders it was not with out its bumps and bruises and twist and turns.

The first part went smoothly with Angi and I getting up the doors and walls. Angi’s brother Jeffery and neighbors showed up just in time to assist with getting the roof crown and rafters up. A process that started out a little precarious and resulted in Jeffery volunteering for the yurts sacrificial bloodletting, when one of the initial rafters fell out hitting him squarely on the head, thank fully he was not seriously hurt. So with the yurt rafter installation lesson learned, we proceeded cautiously and soon completed the yurts wooden frame.

Which lead us to the outer layers of the inner lining, insulation, and canvas for the walls, and vinyl roof. A tricky process, as the fabric pieces were large and required careful arrangement over the whole structure. Which like a lot of what we have accomplished so far, the longer you look at it the more it makes sense as to how to proceed.

Finally came the plexiglas dome, on a ladder tall enough that I could stand up within the center crown, I threw a rope down to Angi who tied it off to the dome and then we slide it up the roof and then secured it to the crown.

Our Flickr page has a lot of photos from the two days effort.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/angimarkchloe/2579720414/

Waiting, waiting, waiting....

Right now we are pretty much ready to put up the yurt. We are just waiting for some sunny weather. Well, it doesn't even have to be sunny, we just need a day without rain. Each night I have been going to bed setting positive thoughts on a rainless day! Almanac.com says Snohomish can expect sun on Thursday, Friday and Saturday this week.

Roof cleaning

Along with the floors Angi started to give the roof a cleaning, with its size and weight its a little akward, we'll be looking for some sunny days this coming week to get it clean and dry.

Bamboo floors

With a big push this weekend the bamboo flooring was installed, with a lot of help for Angi’s brother and Dad. The flooring is beautiful, but they really great part is that we are now in the position to put up our first yurt. Which weather permitting might happen as early as this coming weekend.