Summer '24 Yurt Update

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