1.5 months of life in the yurt!

Despite our worries and quickly fleeting time, we were able to move in to the yurt on the first of July. We celebrated our first night over a delicious pizza made the The Elmore Store, which uses Elmore Mountain Bread for the crust and local veggies (right across the road). Since then we have had many more pizzas from there and a whole lot of work, some relaxation, a interesting stories to impart on the blog. The first order of business, is to let you guys know that yes, we do love living in the yurt. The circular area has much more of a relaxing nature than even I anticipated. This relaxation has been far and few between, but when it has been taken advantage of, it has been much needed.  I forgot to take some more recent photos of the yurt, however I have some photos of the yurt more finished from the last time we posted. 

The yurt pre-doors, (we do have doors)

Back Door with stairs

The floor has R7 foamboard under the flooring

2 days worth of flooring

we began to move our stuff inside and things became much less open

The quick bed frame I made to store stuff under

Future site of the kitchen and bathroom

It quickly became a disaster zone.

Silas loves the yurt

He is, as always, so helpful when it comes to cleaning up/

The dome and rafters can not be captured in pictures

Silas and I on an early morning hike up Elmore Mtn.

The kittens and Silas have been catching up on their beauty sleep. Apparently the yurt is a wonderful sleeping space.

The bathroom walls.

The newest updates to the interior of the yurt which have no pictures (yet) are the bathroom walls, the loft above the bathroom, and the addition of a countertop, which I am still working on. We have also problem solved some small tweaks in the composting toilet system. Originally we were going to just use the buckett system as outlined int he Humanure Handbook, however Sarah and I thought that if we separated the urine it would reduce any smells. This was a wrong assumption, and we ended up having more of a smell and we emptied the bucket everyday. After our vacation to Maine, where we stayed at an off-grid hostel, we were convinced that the simple bucket was the way to go. As of a few days ago, we have been using the bucket for all deposits, and it has been working much better, and with no smell.  

4th of July weekend, I spend neck deep in a freezing spring fed well, cleaning it out and running water pipe about 600' down the hill to the yurt. I was able to re-use some of the buried pipe through patching leaks by putting my ear to the ground and listening for gurgles of water, then digging, cutting, and rejoining the pieces. I did need to put down about 200' of new piping and it is currently above the ground. We will have to find a solution to the water for the winter, right now it works and we have running water to the yurt. We also have an on demand hot water heater and I built an outdoor shower stall, so we are living pretty luxuriously! 

Sarah has been busy digging holes and making garden beds for next year, moving brush piles, and trying to stay on top of my never ending clutter, whoops. 

Here are some quick highlights of life in the yurt so far

- After a few drinks, the urine bucket will quickly become full and overflow (even if friends are around)

-Leaving the yurt for someone to poop quickly becomes old and the bathroom walls suddenly jump to the top of the list

-Cats are clever and will find ways to escape the yurt through opening doors and crawling through the velcro windows

-When it rains hard, forget about watching that movie or having an audible conversation

- Outdoor showers are the most amazing experience, especially when they are hot

- Being a debt free home owner is satisfying 

- Walking on the trails outside our door and not having to get in the car or even put on shoes.

- explaining to people that yes you live in a yurt and, no you are not crazy.

-Nothing is better than sitting in front of the window while drinking tea and realizing that you really built your own home