yurt update Nov 15-21

When I last left you (Nov 15) we had a pile of sticks (pretty, varnished, shaped sticks, but sticks nonetheless), a large wooden wheel, and a pile of canvas and plastic. Now (Dec 6) we have a home. Let’s see if I can walk through the last three weeks and piece one to the other. I hope, eventually, to write a summary of our process and also our costs for those who are curious, but for now, to the story.

I spend the week of November 15-19 procrastinating the ultramarathon of sewing that sits in the corner of the living room. I should have spent a couple hours every evening sewing, but rest instead and end up taking time off work Thursday to begin in the late morning. The triangular roof panels are so long that I can only get through one and a half before I have to replace the bobbin. I run out of thread near the end of the roof panels and decide to call it a day.

Saturday I have one goal only and that is to have the canvas into two pieces – roof and wall – ready to load into my car and head to Hanover. I am tired. My back hurts. I keep going. My house is made of 10 ounce untreated canvas and fiber dust and thread clippings. After. So long. I reach my goal. At this point each giant piece of canvas is about 40 pounds and 75 feet long. I bundle them all together, throw them over my back like the Grinch’s rucksack and deposit them gracelessly in the back of my car.

Meanwhile, E has been hard at work at his actual job doing inventory all morning. We meet up in Hanover, paint the door and frame with primer, load everything into a truck and take it to our setup location. The sun is already setting, so we leave it be and go home.

Saturday morning we arrive bright and early and cold. We are temporarily setting the yurt up on a concrete pad that is part of an old cow shed. Incidentally this has a tall roof that will cover about 80% of the yurt, but we hope to get the yurt covered in waterproof vinyl and not need to take advantage of this fact. Around nine o'clock a handful of intrepid friends trickle in to help us set up the yurt. 

This will be a multi-person operation: First to expand the lattice, currently a five-by-eight-foot rectangle, into hoop with a seventy-five-foot circumference, and second to put up the roof. We are not sure how this is going to work, but the only way to find out is to get started.

The lattice expands relatively easily. We have drawn a chalk circle on the ground and try to match the lattice to this circle. The two ends of the lattice are tied to either side of the door frame and the outside of the upper edge of the lattice is tied all the way around with a long rope. This rope will hold the outward tension of the roof – since the lattice acts as an accordion, the roof would simply push it into a larger circle until it was flat on the ground, but the rope will hold everything in shape. Once you realize the structure is held together by a rope, you will never look at any yurt the same way again.

The roof proves a tricky problem. The wheel that will sit at the center, with rafters coming out like spokes towards the wall, will sit twelve feet above the ground. We get out a 10-foot ladder and someone volunteers to climb it holding the ring – but it is too heavy to balance and get the rafters in place and the three rafters we thought might support the center ring aren’t nearly enough – they stretch our lattice circle out of shape and no one feels particularly safe. E’s dad is watching the rigmarole and offers some farm scaffolding. We regroup, get the scaffolding. It looks funny set up in the middle of the yurt, but it makes the job 324% more doable. Two friends stand on top of the scaffolding supporting the wheel on their shoulders while we install rafters – first tapping them into a hole on the wheel and then tying the other end to the top of the wall lattice. After about half of the rafters are in place, the two scaffold standers let go of the wheel, and we have a freestanding structure. It is a relief and a release – this might actually work. 

We put in as many rafters as we can until we run out of rope for tying the bottom ends to the wall lattice and take a break for lunch. When we return we will finish putting the rafters on. It looks like a yurt! It is strong; it does not wobble; the rope does not break; even E’s dad, watching the chaos come together, is quietly impressed. It feels really good.

To be continued…