This past weekend students at Spirit Hollow, Shaftsbury, Vermont built a yurt, designed for Yestermorrow, transforming lumber in a truck into a magical home in two days.
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Boards were ripped into wall rods, pairs of rods bolted into V's, V's joined into walls,
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and attached to a two by four door frame, trimmed is one inch pine.
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A home made dome was fashioned from scraps of yurt building materials and a clear vinyl window material.
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A roof ring was made from two rings of out door plywood, and 2 x 3 blocks. Rafters were fitted to the ring and attached to the walls with cord.
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Youngest student helps seal a roof seam.
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After wall building, the walls were put up on a platform trimmed by 3/8's outdoor plywood by students.
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Walls were covered with canvas tarps and the roof was covered with polytarp wedges taped with double sided carpet tape. A tension band was installed constructed from tow strap rated at 10 tons.
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A yurt door built by students from scrap from their yurt project between classes
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Home made yurt dome built from scrap and a sheet of clear vinyl plastic for thirty dollars. A plastic dome cost $350 after shipping. Which one makes more sense?
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A small yurt home built, pitched and covered in two days.
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Students embellish a door frame design.
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Ta-dah! These are the folks who faced the ultimate challenge of transforming lumber and tarps into a yurt home in two days!
Very hard work! Very satisfying work!
Give them a cheer!
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Students who plan to begin building their own yurt soon, perhaps on day after the workshop ended.
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Youngest yurt student who was superb joining the sections of the roof cover by pounding the seams with a rubber mallet,inspects the wall pitching.
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Many thanks to Spirit Hollow, to Yestermorrow and to the students who chose to spend their money and time on learning to build their own yurts.
Yurt Material Costs: $664
Platform Material Costs: $143
And a very special thank you to Allen Lumber of Montpelier, VT who helped us make these numbers happen.