Spring '25 Yurt Update

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.    ​

24' Standard Yurt with attached mudroom

​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:
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• 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]​

24' Standard Yurt

August 11 - 24th, 2025 in Glover, VT. 

• This will be a two-floor concentric yurt raising that will be have a slab foundation and will finish at a total of 516 sq ft.
• Wanna help raise this yurt?  Email Phil - [email protected]

Phil's Yurt

• September 2nd - 15th, 2025 in Bradford, NH. 
  • This yurt will also be a two-floor concentric yurt of approx 1,000 sq ft plus a full basement.  
  • For more info or to sign up to help build this yurt, email Gary -  [email protected]

Gary & Crissy's Yurt

Articles, Essays, & Websites:

• Article from the Guardian - "A beautiful discovery:"  How woodworking is helping people carve out inner peace.  The story of how carving helped a woodworker cope with anxiety, depression, and PTSD.  
• How to build a Simple Yurt without steel and reclaimed materials - by Tim Anderson

Books We've Enjoyed
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• A few years back Mike helped George & Erin Sawyer build a 24' freespan yurt on their land in partial trade for a chairmaking class.  It took me more years than I'd like to admit to tell George I'm ready to do the class.  But, finally in the fall of 2024 I carpooled up to Calais, VT to make a chair with George, Eli, and four other beautiful souls.  We laughed a lot and made lovely chairs in their incredible shop.  Needless to say, if you ever want to take a chairmaking class, I'd highly recommend the experience at Sawyer Made.  
  • You're probably thinking - this is the book section - why is he going on about chairs?  Well, during the chair workshop I was turned on to this awesome book -  A Pretty Simple Chair Class Handbook - by Aspen Golann - another talented & respected chairmaker you should know about.  
• Reclaim Your Sh*t - by Sarah Poppy Jackson - Why do we defecate in drinking water?  In these times of climate breakdown, ecological degradation, social stress, and resource scarcity, isn’t it time this changed?  Consider looking into regenerative sanitation and turn your waste into a resource!  
• Soil and Soul: People vs Corporate Power - by Alastair McIntosh.  An inspiring tale of (among other things) reclaiming the Isle of Eigg from a long history of wealthy absentee landowners and transferring it's ownership to the common folk residing on the land.  
• The Gandhian Iceberg - by Chris Moore-Backman.  Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr, and the power of non-violence.  We've been delving into this book with some neighbors as a book group and it's sparked some potent conversations.   
• The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate - by Jacqueline Kelly.  The story of a young girl growing up in Texas  at the turn of the 19th century who's more interested in nature, science, and forging her own way than following the traditional path of housewifery and the formalities that go with it.  
• Low <-- Tech Magazine's Compressed Book Edition - How to make books more sustainable?  They squeezed a three volume book series into one book.  
  • By the way, did you know that they have a solar powered website?  It has been designed to radically reduce the energy required to host their website. 
    • Because it uses so little energy, this website can be run on a mini-computer with the processing power of a mobile phone. It needs 1 to 2.5 watts of power, which is supplied by a small, off-grid solar PV system on the balcony of the author’s home. Typical for off-the-grid renewable power systems, energy storage is limited. This means that the website will go off-line during longer periods of cloudy weather. 
  • I appreciate their ingenuity and commitment to living in the 21st century with simple technologies.  

​​Parting Thought:
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Most of the things worth doing in the world had been declared impossible before they were done. - Louis Brandeis
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