Happiness Is Messing About In Yurts

Yurt gazebo visited today after visiting Montpelier's Farmers' Market. Great produce coming out of Cate Farm this time of year.

Yurt doorway opens to Central Vermont in summer.

I love the rafters meeting the center ring and the view of the outside that intertwines with the view of ring and rafters.

Rafters meeting the heads of the gate like fence.

Detail of a rafter meeting a head of the fence like wall. The tension band behind the head is made from a military surplus towing strap and holds the fence in place and the roof up.

Third Home for My Home Made, Hand Made 16 Foot Yurt

My home made, hand made yurt has found its third home in Central Vermont. The two previous homes have been in the Berkshires of Massachusetts. I love the look of the spruce strapping material, stained red with an off-tint version of Cabot stain. The red against the green leaves of summer are one of my favorite times for my yurt. The other is lying in bed, looking up at the night sky in the central sky light, with the rafters radiating out from the ring in candle light. The strapping material came from Home Depot and cost me about a dollar per rafter and fifty cents per wall rod which are halved strapping or firring strips. The framing material of the yurt was under a hundred dollars, a good choice for housing, extra rooms, etc. in difficult economic times.
The first two times I put the yurt up, the center ring was placed on top two by threes resting on a cheese bucket, duct-taped to the top of an eight foot step ladder. This time I built some scaffolding to hold the ring while the rafters where inserted. I was happy with the result, which was safer and allowed a more relaxed rafter placement than the cheese bucket procedure did. Right now I've covered only the roof and am enjoying the gazebo like structure the yurt is this way. What a wonderfully flexible design, that can fold up and move hundreds of miles away, leaving no trace of where it was. I know it is a tent but in my mind it is a glorious tent. To call a yurt a tent is a little like calling a mansion a log cabin.