The Next 2011 Yurt Workshop! Exploring The Green and Sustainable

The next design-build yurt workshop, offered by by Bruce W Sargent will be at The Felters' Fling Conference of 2011, August 20-23 . Students will spend three days learning to design their own yurt, modeling a yurt, and working with a full scale yurt of their models.

And then! The scale models will be covered with felt in a following class given by Annemie Koenen, a Dutch feltmaker with extensive felt yurt making experience in Kyrgyzstan. This is your chance to learn how to make your own extremely affordable yurt frame and to finish it with a sustainable and green covering of felt.

Annemie Koenen

These workshops and The Felters' Fling Conference will take place at Snow Farm in Massachusetts' Pioneer Valley:


at Snow Farm, in Massachusetts' Pioneer Valley.

SEE COSTS AND REGISTRATION DETAILS AT:

http://www.blacksheepdesigns.com/fling2011.html

The Felters' Fling Conference 2011 is led by Sharon Costello of Black Sheep Designs.

More Yurt Workshop at Spirit Hollow Building a Yurt Designed for Yestermorrow

Randy Repass' beautiful door made from yurt building scraps between classes.

Seeing "God's Eye", the term for the yurt dome in the Mongolian tradition.

Installing the Dome

Talking over the preparation for the dome installation.

Constructing the roof cover

Bagana or Roof Ring Supports are Fashioned

Roof ring work.

Images in this post by
Randy Repass
Radmacdaddy Productions

Technology Counselor & Designer

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.

Spirit Hollow Workshop on Building A Simple Yurt

A few classroom slots at Spirit Hollow Workshop still available. Respond quickly at http://www.spirithollow.org or at 802.447.3895. Applications will close when the upper limit is reached.

Yurt Building Workshop in Vermont 2011

YURT BUILDING WORKSHOP AT SPIRIT HOLLOW, SHAFTSBURY, VT

GET A HANDS ON EXPERIENCE OF BUILDING A COMPLETE YURT, FRAME, COVER AND YURT RAISING IN TWO DAYS THAT GIVES YOU THE KNOWLEDGE TO

BUILD YOUR OWN DREAM YURT.

MEMORIAL DAY WEEKEND, FRIDAY 6 PM TO SUNDAY 4 PM, MAY 27-29

Yurts have sheltered people since Heradotus wrote histories 2000 years ago. With minimal woodworking skills, a home of complex and magical beauty can be made at an amazingly modest cost, (roughly one tenth of the cost of a Yurt kit). In this workshop, you will gain an experience that will allow you to make your own yurt of any size and any design. This course will lead you through building walls, door frames, rafters, roof rings, roof ring supports, domes, tension bands and coverings. You will gain an experience that will allow you to make your own yurt that meets your needs and matches your dreams.

Bruce Sargent, workshop leader, has built yurts and authored books and articles on yurt building and led workshops and classes about building your own do-it-yourself yurt. He has sought the simplest and most direct methods of yurt construction to create designs that anyone can build. He has shared his studies in workshops in Vermont at Spirit Hollow, Yestermorrow, and Hunger Mountain Food Coop and at his blog http://www.forloveofyurts.blogspot.com. The workshop will build a yurt in a magical two days, course work developed at Yestermorrow in two workshops last summer. Bruce has authored a book on yurt building, For Love of Yurts, Building an Ultra Simple Yurt for Under $1000, published by Shires Press in Manchester VT, a book that some reviewers have felt inspires those who would build their own yurt to have one.

Workshop Objectives

To learn how to build an ultra simple, green, sustainable yurt
To learn simple power and hand woodworking skills necessary to build a yurt
To experience the magic of wall rods, under tension, shaping walls
To experience the ease and joy of lifting the roof ring skyward and fitting rafters to ring and wall
To see how a yurt cover plays with light
To gain a knowledge that allows you to create your own yurt

Suggested Reading

King, Paul. The Complete Yurt Handbook. Eco-Logic Books, www.eco-logicbooks.com
Mulberry House. Maple Grove, Bath BA2 3AF, UK, 2007
Kuehn, Dan Frank, Mongolian Cloud Houses. How to Make a Yurt and Live
Comfortably. Shelter Publications, PO Box 279, Bolinas, California 94924, 2006
Lokey, Charles. Practical Mathematics in Yurt Design; A Detailed Discussion Following
Project GRAD Kenai Peninsula, Summer Learning Institute, www.math.montana.edu/~lokey/YurtMath.pdf, 2004
Sargent, Bruce W. For Love of Yurts, Building an Ultra Simple Yurt for Under $1000, Shires Press, 2009 www.forloveofyurts.com. Stronach, David. On the Antiquity of the Yurt: Evidence from Arjan and Elsewhere. University of California, Berkeley. http://www.silk-road.com/newsletter/2004vol2num1/yurt.htm

Materials to Bring

• Hearing and eye protection
• Shoes
• Tape measure
• Hand saw or hand jig saw
• Knife
• Scissors
• Rasp
• Hammer
• Hand drill, brace, bits or cordless drill
• Pencils
• Note book
• Calculator
• Sleeping bag and mattress pad
• Cup, bowl and spoon
• Pot luck food

Course Outline

Friday evening check-in 6-6:30 PM

Friday Evening Class 6:30-8:30 PM

• Sharing hopes and dreams, discussing the history of yurt designs, looking at the math behind the plans, learning of traditional practices, viewing the weekend schedule and considering safety demanded by the project.

Saturday Morning

• Constructing wall rods, assembling into V's, and assembling V’s into wall sections
• Constructing a door frame
• Constructing a tension band

Saturday Afternoon

• Constructing rafters
• Constructing roof ring

Saturday Evening

• Questions and answers discussion. A time for expanding individual experience that will lead to building one’s own yurt.

Sunday Morning

• Constructing dome and dome fitting
• Cutting and assembling roof ring supports
• Raising the yurt

Sunday Afternoon

• Cutting and joining covering materials
• Covering the framework
• Lashing the covering to supporting ropes and to anchor stones
• Reflecting on that we have accomplished: the nearly impossible feat of making and putting up a yurt in two days, and the wonderful knowledge that hands-on, materials based education has provided for you. Finish at 4 PM

To save on costs meals (Breakfast 8-8:45, Lunch 12-12:45, Supper 5:30-6:15) are pot-luck, so plan accordingly. Simple is good here. Classes are Mornings 9-12, Afternoons 1-4, Evenings 6:30-8:30. Overnight by camping in communal yurts, in your own tent or by staying in nearby motels.

We are asking $225 to $185 on a sliding scale from students to meet workshop costs. You decide where you are on the sliding scale. Work-study half-tuition is available if you request and show need. It couldn't be more fair than that, wouldn't you agree? Enrollment is Limited and we are asking for a deposit of $75 by May 15 to hold your place. Register on line at http://www.spirithollow.org/wordpress/?page_id=21 or telephone Spirit Hollow at 802-447-3895. If you have any questions about the workshop details contact Bruce Sargent at forloveofyurts@gmail.com or at 802-839-8497.

Check us out at Tiny House Blog!

For Love of Yurts: The Book, 1st Anniversary

For Love of Yurts: Building a Yurt-Home for Under A $1000, has reached its first Anniversary. It has been a wonderful year and we would like to thank all those who have browsed the website and all those who have purchased the book, either paperback or ebook. We are grateful for your interest and your support.
In sharing our book, we begun to transforming human relationships to shelter and self. For yurt lovers everywhere, the book is still the best way to get an affordable yurt and is still the best way to learn about making the easiest to build, do-it-yourself, ultra simple, hand-made, yurt-home.
We have been working to improve the overall plan by researching Mongolian and Kazakhstani sources, experimenting with new methods and by exploring greener, more natural and more sustainable yurt coverings.
Thank you to all, who have helped make these efforts a huge success!


Bruce Wm Sargent
President of ForLoveOfYurts.com

The Yestermorrow Yurt

The Yestermorrow Yurt built by roughly a dozen students and teachers this past summer, now is sheltering folks from the wind and the storm.