Hello Novembrrrr! Lattice update

Time has just been flying by since the last post. Summer has come and gone, and we are now fighting the change of seasons to get the yurt components that need outdoor space finished before the snow flies...and stays. It has of course snowed just about every morning for the past week or so, but luckily it has melted from the sun, or rained.

In the last post, we were just beginning to stain and chamfer the edges of the lattice. I may have proclaimed that it would take one million years to finish, however, much to our delight, we finished with many years left to live. The downside? Well, after many hours in a shop with no ventilation because of the frigid weather and cans of stain open, Sarah and I have lost many brain cells. It's all a part of the journey I suppose.

Here is the stack of un-stained and stained lattice pieces. It was incredibly daunting to look at the pile.

Here is half of the number of pieces needed to make the wall. We are putting the lattice up in two sections. The first section is complete, however I forgot to take a picture. It is currently resting at a friends house while we problem solve getting it to our house for storage over the winter.

The first section of lattice I put  together I used a different technique of taking half of the pieces of the half (45) and putting in the bolts in the top hole with a another lattice to make a pair. Then I attached all of the pair lattices together with the second hole and bolts. However I learned after breaking a few pieces and having to fix many sections that when they are attached, the end tend to wander and you have pieces on top that should be underneath and holes not lining up. Overall, it was he much more difficult way of doing it. 

Here is the section that we are working one now. 

This time however, we laid out 6 lattice pieces and took one lattice and attached it to the first hole of the first pieces, the second hole in the second piece and so on and so forth until all 6 holes spread out over the 6 pieces and we kept adding a lattice to the end as we added a lattice to the top. You can sort of see the pattern above. I will try and get a video next time, because it can be confusing at first.

 The lattice saga is almost complete, we just need to suck it up and freeze off our fingers to finish it this week. I have already started the rafters and problem solving the roof ring, so expect an update very soon!

Yurt Appliances on the Fly...and cheap!

One of the fun new activities we have added to our daily lives has been keeping an eye out for items we will need in the house. We are by no means rich, so going to a store and picking them out is not an option. We also enjoy the fun in finding them for a good deal and have met some really nice people.

As an example of keeping our eyes out is when we were returning from Maine, I was doing 60mph on the highway and Sarah tell me to stop and turn around because she saw a woodstove for sale. We turned around, found the woodstove siting in a wheelbarrow ouside of a swanky bed and breakfast place. They wanted too much and ultimately we didn't buy it, but I now know that she has eagle eyes.

We did end up getting a wood stove from a really nice guy in Glover. He was selling two, but had only advertised one at the time, so he showed us both and explained each one in detail. One of them was an antique and absolutely gorgeous, but wasn't airtight at all and would burn wood quickly. We were very tempted to buy this one despite that, but when he said that if we went to bed around 9:30, we would most likely need to restock it around 2:00am. That was when practicality set in and we passed it up.

The other wood stove is fairly non-descript, it is black, heavy, and has a glass window, the emblem says "king" and he said that it will work much better than the antique one as far as needing less wood and attention. It is no "all-nighter" wood stove, but for $100 we are very happy. So here she is...

hanging out in the garage until next spring when we put up the yurt!

She isn't the only new addition to our appliance family, we also have a stove! No wood needed for this one, just propane. Believe it or not, we also bought this one from another really nice older guy. He hooked it up and showed me everything. He did warn me that the oven may or may not work, but he wasn't sure since he never needed to use it in the sugarhouse. I took the risk and bought the stove thinking that even if it didn't work, it should be a quick,easy, and cheap fix. Besides, I only paid $25 for it. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to really test the oven, but it doesn't seem to be flowing propane to the oven and wouldn't light, so I called an appliance fixer and found out that they will basically fix the oven after they rob you of all your money. If we had a really expensive stove, I could understand the cost being nominal compared to the cost of replacing, but ours cost $25 and is a million years old. We will wait until we stumble upon someone who might know and be willing to help us fix it. Until then... here is our stove with a complimentary storage box!

And finally, we found a sink at our local resource store for $5, and boy does he shine! There are no faucets yet, but all of our new yurt appliances are quickly taking up space in our garage. Tada!

Please excuse the spare tire pedestal

So, that is where we are at! We are continuing to keep our eyes out for the remaining things that we need, but we aren't in too much of a rush and we are enjoying every minute of the search. I am especially enjoying the game of how many things can I fit in my subaru. So far, the wood stove, the ovenless stove, and everything else aside from the lumber has made it in my car and arrived safely to its temporary home. Hell yeah Subarus!

Tonight after work, Sarah and I will be heading over to the wood shop to work on the yurt since our week and a half hiatus, more updates to come!

Back from Maine

The day we all dread, the first day back to work after vacation! There has been no progression on the yurt, however our energy has been re-invigorated after a lovely trip to Maine. Sarah's birthday (month) is now over but we celebrated it well. We decided about 3 years ago that we would rather plan a trip for each other on birthdays instead of gifts. Since then, we have gone rock climbing, a cabin retreat on an icy blue river, downhill mountain biking, a long weekend in a yurt, and now our most recent trip to Maine staying at a dear friends beautiful second home. It would be easier to tell you what we didn't do, but I'll summarize it for you sake :)

Well, we left after work on Wednesday to maximize our time and after a short burst of panic as I wrote down the wrong route and had us going on a small detour, we made it to Barbara's home that she so kindly allowed us to stay in. It was perfect.  Quaint house, with an amazing view of a lush green pasture, and the most comfortable leather sofa and surround sound home movie theater. Ah, the luxuries! The next day we visited a convenient store/diner that we used to go to, Melby's. If you are ever in the Stoneham, ME area and looking for a great place to have breakfast, check it out.

   

After our exhausting, delicious breakfast we returned to the house and promptly took a much needed nap. It was just what we both needed. After we made up some of our deficit sleep hours, we received a call from our gracious host, with bad news. She owns an alpaca farm, and one of her yearlings was down and not able to move her hind legs so she would not be able to come to the house for dinner. Instead, we ended up driving to her home and having the dinner there with Julia, her daughter, and Bill, her husband, who we had never met before. We know Barbara through working at Sunday river. she was our supervisor, I worked as a ski instructor, and Sarah sold tickets. Therefore, we saw plenty of her and Julia, but Bill works elsewhere and we never had the chance to meet him. He didn't make it in the photo either, since he went to bed early. We may never have proof that he exists!

Now, back to the alapacas. First things first, we "helped" or hindered the vet in getting Laura, the baby alpaca, set up in the barn with some hay and a friend. She was so stinking cute, and her buddy Silver Star, or as I liked to call him, Silver Fox, was as handsome as could be! 

Baby Laura in her nest recovering. She had some kind of parasite that could kill her, but the vet gave her some serious antibiotics and a vigorous dose of some stuff that should hopefully help her. (My vet lingo is sub-par, sorry)

Silver Fox, her caretaker and friend.

Needles to say, the alpacas were very cute, but I have decided that they are very cat like, and much too cute for their own good. They enjoyed being just out of petting range and would huddle together and stare at you. Try having a dozen little eyes glued to you, when all you want to do is rub their little hair poofs. I did however, make away with their best asset, a couple bags of fiber! 

It was a fabulous night, but we had to leave and get back home since the next day we were going...SURFING! I wish I could attach pictures of the flailing that both of us did, or how we both were able to successfully stand up, but much to our dismay we were too busy surfing, so no pictures were taken. We went to Ogunquit and the surf shop was Liquid Dreams, we highly recommend them. Of course, we enjoyed some delicious seafood while we were there.  I am assuming that you guys might not want to see another picture of us eating.. Sarah wouldn't love the picture either. 

To finish off our trip, we went on a short hike to a natural waterslide, glacial waterfall area. It was absolutely amazing. The views were incredible. The waterslides were pretty fun too :)

So that was our vacation! 

We have now returned to the "real" world and an update on the yurt progress will come soon!

Ready for Staining

Summer time will soon be leaving us, but today was gorgeous none the less!  Today is my second day off, and the only day off that I have with Sarah, so naturally we went to a barn sale for some things we could use in the yurt, did a few things around the house, like watering the garden and some chores, then we went to the wood shop and worked on the yurt. This is the first time Sarah has seen the lumber or any of the progress, she was pleased, as pleased as a cat lady can be. You know the type...

Anyways, the yurt lattice pieces that have been cut (60 of 180) have all been chamfered and Sarah stained a few of them.

After about 10 pieces, she decided she was done working and retired to the pond cabana to do some reading and writing. Life was tough.

Work, Work, and more work!

Since the wood arrived, I have been working like a maniac. Going to actual work, then driving to East Albany, working till well after dark, then driving home and going to bed. Today was no different, except that I actually had all day to work on the yurt, also known as a day off.  Dave and Kathy, my amazing friends who have opened up their home, shop, and refrigerator to me, were getting ready to leave for a long weekend of reunion extravaganzas! Luckily for me, not so luckily for them, Dave is always willing to lend a hand, give some ideas, and put his fingers at risk on the table saw. So here's what I have been up to:

First I took seven of the the 2" x 10" x 16' and cut them in half to make fourteen 2" x 10" x 8'

They are much easier to manage at 8' rather than the full length. Then we cut off a sliver on the sides to clean them of any waning or warping that could be easily taken off. It also cleaned up the wood for the end results.

 As easy as it is to take 7 boards and make 14, it is always gratifying to see the finished pile waiting for the next step.

After that, we cut the fourteen 2" x 10" x 8' into forty-two 2" x 3" X 8'

Ta-da!

I am awful at estimating how long things will take. So I always have high goals of finishing many steps in a few hours, only to find out that I could only finish one step. This was no different. I had ambitions of having them drilled and ready for more cutting by the end f the night. Little did I know that it would take me much longer before I could ever get there.

here is the stack at about 10:00pm. I am pooped and ready to go home!

In order to keep things tidy, we stacked them on the trailer. As you can see, it was certainly dark.

The next two days I spent planing the board (shaving them down) I was knee deep in shavings, with shavings in my nose, ears, and every inch of my clothing. I may have even lost some hearing in the process. Unfortunately I didn't get a picture of the shaving pile, but Dave made a shaving bonfire to make more room for the shavings to come....

Fast forward to today... I was finally able to start drilling! Yay! Woohoo!

Oh wait... it gets boring

Drilling hole after hole, and adjusting for warp and twist, then drilling some more. 

Our quick and dirty jig to help keep the board straight 

The manufacturing line

Hell yeah! The finished pile! 

Next step: Rounding the ends

We set up another jig on the porch to keep the boards aligned and to simplify the process so I wouldn't have to round each one individually. This is neccessary to keep the fabric from getting caught on the edges and tearing. I used a plunge router with a 1/2" drill bit. Ideally a 3/4" would have been best, but you work with what you have.

All lined up and ready for work

I would round off one end, then move the boards down to the other side of the jig and round the other side, then flip them over and repeat the process until all four sides were complete.

This is what they looked like after rounding them.

If we had a 3/4" bit for the router, it would have made the bottom more circular with no flat spot.

Finally, the moment I have been waiting for.

The lattice finally looks... well like a lattice!

We still have many more board to cut into the lattice pieces, this is only about 60 of the 180 that will comprise the wall.

Then for some aesthetic touches, I will be chamfering the edges to soften them. This is going to take me approximately one million years.

Then I am sanding the rough spots. this will also take me one million years

and at some point, they will be stained with a tung oil mixture

Here are some lessons I learned the hard way:

1. Don't walk around the wood shop barefoot or you will get splinters and metal in your foot

2. Don't handle wood without gloves or you will get splinters

3. Don't look at the wood wrong, or you will get splinters

4. When adjusting the roller saw-horse things, don't let go of the adjustable part or it will slam down on your thumb and hurt.

5. Prepare an ice bag for when you get home, you will need it.

All in all, things are coming along quite nicely. I am, despite my above comments, okay and in good spirit. The progress is slow but steady, at least from my perspective. Thus far I have spent 22 hours working on the yurt, with many more to go. 

The Lumber is here

Yesterday I met the sawyer at my friend David's house, to stack and examine the wood we ordered for the khana (walls) and rafters. It feels like we are finally making a big step forward simply by having some of the supplies. My plan is to start coming over to the shop after work and start on the khana. Seven of the boards were already dry and ready, which is coincidentally just the number of boards I need for the walls. The rest have been stickered and stacked until I'm ready to begin the rafters. The rafters will be pretty simple since I am more or less just cutting the board in half to make a 1.5" X 4.5" X 16'.

The nitty gritty of the information is that we bought 34- 2" X 10" X 16' boards. Seven of them will be used for the walls, the remaining 26 will be used to make the 52 rafters, and there is one extra board just in case anything happens. Each board cost us $14.68 plus tax and a delivery fee of $25 for a total of $555.07

I also had the opportunity to go by my friend Wendy's land, to try and help her find a spot for a shallow well. She has graciously offered her land for us to stay on, although we have yet to decide if we can make it happen since she lives in the opposite direction of our jobs. We were however able to find a spot that had some standing water and some orange bacteria. The orange bacteria is present when iron is available in the water. It is also commonly present where de-oxygenated water flows into an aerobic area. This could mean that the water is coming from a  source underground and when it reaches the surfaces the bacteria is able to colonize. This is all theoretical at the moment since I only dug a small hole to see how the water was behaving. It appeared to be flowing in the hole, albeit not as quickly as I would like. I am hoping that a deeper hole will remedy that situation and we will be able to use this spot as a shallow well for the land.

On the home front, we had a bit of a scare these past few weeks with Silas. He has been losing weight and having some bladder control issues. After a lengthy visit to the vet with x-rays, blood work, parasite test, and a urine culture, our next step is to change his food and give him a different antibiotic once the culture comes back. All I can say is that he is lucky he is cute. The only good thing that has happened since he became ill is that the cats have taken an interest in stepping all over him and cuddling him at the cutest times.

Garden cuddling Silas during a mid-day nap

Last but not least, we went blueberry picking! We now have 5.5lbs of blueberries for winter waffles, jam, or snacking.

I most likely ate about as many as I picked. I wasn't of much help. Sarah did most of the picking.

All in all, it was a great "weekend" and now we are relaxing in the kitchen and making some choke cherry mead!

We are building a Yurt!

The topic of a yurt came up a few years ago when I began obsessively researching yurts, how to build yurts, floor plans, and the scarce but informative blogs that others have created to map their journeys of yurt living. I quickly decided that I wanted to build and live in a yurt, my partner however was not so sure if the yurt life was for her. After some time and a considerable amount of research, we have both decided that building a yurt will be a great way for us to save money and move in to a house of our own. Since we both work at jobs we love rather than jobs that pay, we have hit a roadblock in terms of buying our own land.

I work at Green River Reservoir State Park as the Park Steward during the summer and have worked at ski resorts across the counrty as a ski instructor for the past 6 years. Although I am not sure about my future employment since I have just recently graduated from Sterling College, and currently on the search for a "real-ish" job.

                                                                     That's me in the middle. 

 Sarah is a farmer, she works at Elmore Roots, a fruit tree nursery, in Elmore, VT and has previously worked at many organic vegetable farms before she found her passion of fruit trees. I have it pretty good with her being a farmer. Fresh fruit and veggies, I just have to help with the digging and harvesting, the planning, brainwork, and weeding is all her. 

Together we have our "zoo" which is our 2 cat-daguhters Floki and Garden, and our pup Silas. 

Floki was the first child who was a birthday gift to Sarah on her 21st birthday. In her mind, she is the queen of all dog beds, water bowls, and window protector of the house. She is a princess, in Sarah's mind. 

Garden is our dumpster kitty. I found her under a dumpster in Hardwick one rainy and cold spring evening. Much to Sarah's chagrin, I brought the sopping wet, dread-locked, mucus mouth home. It didn't take long before Sarah was in love and Garden received her name after she was shunned to the garage and decided to play and sleep on Sarah's gardening equipment. from that day forward she became Garden, the most needy, always starving, butter-eating, drooling, dirty, hunting cat we have ever laid our eyes on. 

Then there is Silas, he is a New York death row pup who stole my wounded heart with his fat head and goofy eyes. We had recently lost our previous pup, my heart-dog, Sage, to cancer, when I came across his photo. Something in his look told me that he was coming home to us. Much to Sarah's chagrin (do you see a pattern?) He came home and became the goofiest, neediest, pain in the ass dog ever. 

So, now here we are, a zoo of a family, with big dreams of owning an orchard and living on our own land, with no money. So how are we going to do it? Well, we are blessed with amazing friends and family who have supported our decision, offered us land to live on, and opened up their work shop to my multiple crazy ideas. We are at the beginning of our journey, with our first purchase of a sink from a resource store and our first big purchase of the lumber needed to build the walls and rafters. We are on our way and can't wait to live in our very own yurt.