Recently Ella was doing a homeschool project of interviewing friends about various things and then making color graphs to represent the numbers.  Essential questions like - what's your favorite color, how many pairs of socks do you have, what kind of pets do you have, and what is your favorite season.  My favorite season is undoubtedly WINTER.  I love the many different types of snow, the outlines of snow on the tree limbs, sparkels everywhere, and the feeling of snot freezing in my nose.  That being said, there's a lot to like about Spring, but there's a good bit of sadness inside of me to know that WINTER is over for another year.    ​

​We eased through this winter in our cozy 24' diameter yurt.  It performed admirably - we really love living in this yurt.  The Jotul 602 feels like the perfect stove for heating the space and cooking breakfast in this 24' diameter yurt.  Our only complaint is that every day Ella (now 11) and Mira (now 5) get bigger - but the yurt stays constant at 314 square feet.  We're starting to dream and plan for a bigger yurt..... some day.  

Upcoming 2025 Yurt Workshops - 

Yurt workshops are about sharing shelter-making and woodworking skills, meeting people, and having fun at the same time.  Usually they're free or low-cost.  We're excited to be facilitating 3 yurt raising workshops this year:
​

• June 11 - 24th, 2025 in Duxbury, VT. 
  • We'll be raising a 24' freespan yurt very similar to the one we're living in - pictured above (sans mudroom).  
  • Interested in helping build this yurt?  Email Scott - [email protected]​

What's new in the world of Dickinsons Reach Yurts?!?
Summer's Bounty is upon us.  Cucumbers, Zucchini, Peahes, and Corn - OH Yes! 
We've had more than enough heat spells here in Southern Vermont but the swimming holes and daily rainwater buckets dumped on the head never cease to drop my core body temperature just when I need it most.  
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
In July, together with almost 30 other friends and relations, we re-shingled 1,400 sq ft of the 1st floor roof of an old and most treasured yurt.  

2024 Yurts to come: 
We've been getting things in order for the two upcoming 2024 yurt workshops as well as workshops in 2025: 

• Later in August we're raising a Yurt Sauna in Putney, VT (This workshop is FULL)
• September 9 - 22 in Green Mountain, NC.  We're raising a classic Concentric Yurt similar to the one picured below except we'll be installing a metal roof.  There's still space in this workshop if you'd like to participate - text Beth at 828-208-6625 for more info and to register.

2025 Yurts to come:

• May/June of 2025 - a 24' free-span yurt in Northern VT (exact dates TBD)
• 2025 - Raising a 550 sq ft concentric yurt in Glover, VT (exact dates TBD)
• 2025 - Raising a 550 sq ft concentric yurt on the coast of Maine (exact dates TBD)

Yurt Sauna Plan
I've been claiming to be close to finishing the Yurt Sauna plan for a while now.  Over the past couple of years, things in our life have been tumultuous with leaving our former homestead, our move, and settling into our current yurt homestead.  BUT, now the yurt sauna plan is getting close!  If things continue to progress, the plan should be finalized in the next couple of months.  With any luck, the next update I send out will be to tell you that they're ready to order.  
New - Past Newsletters Page on our Website
In case you've missed any of the past Dickinsons Reach Yurts Newsletters, now they're all cataloged for reading here.  
Articles, Essays, & Websites

• Low <-- Tech Magazine - I'm extraordinarily grateful for my friends who turned me on to Low <-- Tech Magazine.    They have a wonderfully informative website as well as great books available in print format with a collection of essays on things like Direct Solar Power:  Off Grid without batteries, passive solar greenhouses, and my personal favorite - How to Downsize a Transport Network: The Chinese Wheelbarrow.

Books we've enjoyed

• Gaslight by Jonathan Mingle - An inspiring story of grass-roots organizers & some conscientious government employees standing up a bohemoth of an energy company attempting to build an un-needed pipeline in VIrginia, West Virginia, and North Carolina
• Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat by Samin Nosrat. - Those of you who know me realize that cooking is not one of my most refined talents.  BUT lately I've been cooking dinner once a week for our family and have really appreciated Samin's well thought out explanations of how to use salt, fat, acid, and heat to make delicious meals.  It's helped me to understand how different ingredients interact wtih each other and what's going on inside of a recipe.  Maybe some day I'll be able to improvisationally produce delicious food - but I'm not there yet.  
• Reading the Forested Landscape by Tom Wessels - This is a classic that many of you likely know of, but I hadn't read it until recently.  Tom's ability to see a landscape and assemble various clues to construct the story of past disturbances and land use patterns blew my mind.  My walks through the woods haven't been the same since.  
• Pippi Longstocking by Astrid Lindgren - Ella and Mira both love these books (and so do I!)  I think what I appreciate most is Pippi's incredible creativity in problem solving.  
• Anything By Eric Sloane.

Parting Thought
If Wrecked Upon the Shoal of Thought
​How is it with the Sea?
The Only Vessel that is shunned
Is safe - Simplicity - 
- E. Dickinson

Greetings Yurt Aficionados,I'm writing from Southeastern Vermont where the weather is turning milder after an already mild (not wild) winter.  What has been going on with Dickinsons Reach Yurts, you may be wondering?  Well.....
- Our family has been lovingly settling into our yurt home atop East Mountain. ​

- 2025 Yurts To Come

• Spring of 2025 - A 24' Standard Yurt raising in Northern VT - details TBD.  
• If you're interested in hosting a Yurt Raising Workshop in 2025, email us to talk about the details - [email protected].  

- Articles & Essays

• I thought you may enjoy this pleasant article describing the high level of Mongolian social interconnectedness - faciitated by their yurtlife!   
• The Value of Voluntary Simplicity, Richard Gregg - Richard Gregg was a teacher and inspiration for Bill Coperthwaite.  I enjoyed reading this well thought out argument for simple living which you can find for free download on the soil and health library.  

- Books we've enjoyed 

• Good Work: The Chairmaking Life of John Brown - Part honest biography, part how to make a Welsh Stick Chair, part collection of interesting articles written by John.  Fully enjoyable.  
• Moving Heavy Things.  by Jan Adkins - I find it dificult to explain how much fun it is to move large objects with human power.  I'd consider it a dying art.  Lovely illlustrations.
  • Robert Riversong also likes to move heavy things.    
• Uncle Tom's Cabin, by Harriet Beecher Stowe - I never read this as a youth, and I'm not sure it would have affected me the same way as it does now.  It's difficult for me to fathom that it was an accepted part of our culture to "own" another human.  Nor can I begin to imagine what it would feel like to have my family split up at an auction where my daughter would go to the highest bidder.  I'm grateful that these practices are outawed but also recognize that modern slavery does exist in many forms.  There is work yet to be done to ensure "liberty and justice for all".  
• The BFG (Big Friendly Giant), Roald Dahl - Ella LOVES this book.  Roald must have had fun inventing his vocabulary for this - "snozzcumbers"
• Possum Living, Dolly Freed - Dolly lived very simply in suburban Pennsylvania in the 70's.  There's a lot of great detail and info on how to live simply yet abundantly with little $$$.  
• The Lorax, Dr. Seuss - UNLESS someone like you cares a whole awful lot.  Nothing is going to get better, it's not.  

- Websites

• This to That - Are you like me in that while lying in bed at 3am you're pondering what the best adhesive is to glue Leather to Glass?  If so, then you'd be as excited as I was when I learned about the website - It's an amazing wealth of information revealing which adhesive is most proficient in glueing one thing to another.  In case you're wondering, Silicone will provide the strongest bond, but Weldbond is the best non-toxic option.  

Phew!  What an update.  I won't wait so long to send out the next one.  
- Mike

ife has been full.  There are a lot of big changes happening for our family at this time.  We are in the process of moving out of the cooperative homestead we helped create here in Guilford, VT back in 2014.  Our family of 4 will be moving into this yurt so lovingly crafted with the willing hands of friends and family on East Mountain in Guilford.  It's been an enormous undertaking to uproot ourselves, our homesteading POPS (Piles of Possibilities), and take steps towards leaving the passive solar house we've built, gardens & orchards we have planted and tended, and land & people we have loved.  We don't know what the future holds for us - but I'm certain it will entail endeavoring to create beauty wherever we are.   
We had an incredible yurt raising in our home town of Guilford, VT back in October.  We raised a 24' standard yurt in a 12 day workshop over 3 long weekends.  This one has a standing seam roof - the first I've been part of.  The kind folks at the Maine Coast Craft School have a standing seam roof on their 24' Standard Yurt and provided a lot of encouragement and inspiration for us to try it.  We bent the seams by hand with a tool called the WUKO bender.  Many thanks to all of the hands who came out to help and to Anna and John for their adventurous spirits.  We plan to have an "open yurt" for everyone to come back and say hi once we are settled. 
The Yurt Sauna plan is still in the works, but has been put on the back burner for now while we focus on moving.  
Here are some pictures of the yurt raising in October - followed by dates for Upcoming YURT WORKSHOPS in 2023!!! 
with love,
Mike
​

We installed a ring of cedar around the outer perimeter as well as just below the skylight.  The roof assembly is vented at the bottom for air to enter - and at the top under the upper ring of cedar to allow any moisture laden air to escape.  ​

Upcoming YURT WORKSHOPS!
​
We have 3 workshops scheduled for 2023:

• June 21 - 27th in Glenmoore, PA - Yurt Sauna Raising - contact Pamela if you're interested in participating - [email protected]
  
• July 19 - 31 - Marlboro, VT - 24' Standard Yurt raising akin to the one pictured above - Contact Omeed if you're interested in participating - [email protected] 
  
• September 1 - 14th - 24' Standard Yurt raising in Maine - this workshop is currently full.  

These dates are also on our website.

​It's a 40' diameter free-span pavilion yurt.  As far as I know, it's the BIGGEST free-span taper-wall yurt to date.  We had an awesome crew.  A huge thanks to all of the hands that participated. 
I've recently updated the dryurts.com website - and lots of pictures of this build can be found here.  Thanks to skyview.org and Erika Vikander for sharing these pictures!

If you've got a hankering for some yurt building this summer, here's a quick update of some upcoming Taper-Wall Yurt workshops.  

This coming week we begin the LARGE 40' freespan yurt up on Spruce Knob in West Virginia.  It's at the site of Experience Learning - an outdoor education center that's been around since the 70's.  There are many beautiful yurts there and this new freespan yurt will be an open air pavilion.   The foundation is poured and will be ready for us to start making parts and installing the canted white oak wall posts on June 1st.  The first week is full, but if you want to join the fun, there are still spots on the crew for the second week, from June 6 - June 15.  Email Jackie ([email protected] ) to sign up or if you'd like more info.     Here's a picture of the 3"x4" roof matrix
​  will be assembling.      




AND, There's also another two week yurt build in Pembroke, Maine from July 8 - 21st at the Greenhorns Campus.  We will build some small wooden residence yurts like you can see here.  Email the Greenhorns ([email protected]) for more info.  

​The rest of 2022 is full, but if you can't make these workshops, there are a few Taper-Wall Yurt workshop offerings in the works for 2023.  I'll send out more information about those as it becomes clear.  


Enjoy the day,


Mike