Spirit Hollow Workshop on Building A Yestermorrow Yurt

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.

Boards were ripped into wall rods, pairs of rods bolted into V's, V's joined into walls,

and attached to a two by four door frame, trimmed is one inch pine.

A home made dome was fashioned from scraps of yurt building materials and a clear vinyl window material.

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.

Youngest student helps seal a roof seam.

After wall building, the walls were put up on a platform trimmed by 3/8's outdoor plywood by students.

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.

A yurt door built by students from scrap from their yurt project between classes

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?

A small yurt home built, pitched and covered in two days.

Students embellish a door frame design.

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!

Students who plan to begin building their own yurt soon, perhaps on day after the workshop ended.

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.

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.