There once was a Yurt and it wanted to get raised in the worst way....
So, we raised it in good cheer and good weather!
This is a partial picture-story of that raising...
(click on images with a border and they'll get bigger)
This building (can you find it?) is to the north of the yurt. We call it 'The Camp' and it's where we stayed until the yurt went up. Cozy and clean (after buying a propane heater and a 5-day scrub-down by Heidi), it served it's purpose, but compared to the yurt... well... yes, the roof is blue. That's a tarp-over-plastic-over-leaky-roof nicely tied on by Heidi. I learned two new knots that day, although I'd need to glance at them again to do them over, it's been a while since The Day of a Thousand Knots. Strangely enough, it was fun. ...and the knots held.
Here we are, Rachael, Damian and me (in the orange). Greg's taking the picture from up the hill.
Yes, the yurt deck is thick. We decided to splurge and get the 'Structurally Insulated Panels' (SIP's) for our floor. Six lovely inches of insulation mean the floor won't be freezing in winter! My tender toes think that was a wonderful decision.
Look at the nice tile job!!! (between Damian and I.) We'll discover later that the door opens in the Other direction, meaning we have to step around to the back of the door to drop mucky boots, but we can live with that. At my feet is the last section of flooring that has to be laid. We chose Bamboo flooring and it looks really nice (if I do say so myself.) Near the end, I taught Greg and Damian how to manually (remember, there's no electricity here!) nail some flooring, but it was almost midnight by then... they did a really nice job in spite of the time! Rachael is taking massage classes and taught me a better way to 'stand' bent over so my lower back doesn't hurt from so much time folded in half. It involves sticking your butt out - and NO, you don't get that picture here. Sorry.
This is my truck Betsy delivering yurt trellis's, rafters, walls and other yurting supplies. It's already noon. How far along do you think we'll get?
Lincoln is looking a little doubtful... Damian's wondering what exactly we're going to ask him to consider doing next?! (What a good sport they're all being!) The last picture is of me looking so happy that it's yurt-raising day and I've actually got the floor finished! (except for the threshold between tile and flooring, but who wants to rush things?)
The supporting lattice walls are up (and if you look closely, you'll see the airplane-strength tension wire is in place at the top of the lattice and along the front of the door.) We've finished building the scaffolding and will bring it to the center and raise the 'circle' to the top of the scaffolding. The rafters will be held in tension between that circle and the wire at the top of the lattice. Pretty cool! (But part of me thinks the whole thing will be wibbly-wobbly somehow...) For reference, Damian's butt is sitting 11 feet and two inches in the air. I knew you'd want to know.
Now we know why Lincoln was looking so dubious. he was outnumbered! Here is Dulcie (up front), Diva (the blonde) and Dascha (who's found something interesting on the floor.)
The grasses are as tall as 'the puppies', and it's funny to watch them go romping off in the yard. Lincoln though, stands out. I think he's spotted an errant puppy off in the distance...
The rafters are up!!! Best of all, they're not wobbly at all! To the left is a closeup of my honies Damian and Greg. (Rachael is busy with the camera.) Rachael and I lifted each one of those rafters up to the boys and they fit the rafter's pins in little slots in the ring. They only had to drill-out two of the slots to get the pins to fit. Thank goodness for battery-powered drills. We then lifted the rafter so the airplane wire fit into a slot in the end of the rafter. Clevis pins and screws keep everything from falling out. The scaffolding is 6 feet high, Greg is 6 foot two inches. We have a tall roof!
It's windy and beginning to get darker, so we decide to call it a day. I think it's beautiful just as it is (and the breeze feels good, too.)
We're ready for a campfire and some fire-roasted-sausages.