Yurt

A couple I know decided they wanted a period tent, and I always wanted to build a yurt, and after some discussion, they decided that this would be the best kind of tent for their family as well.  They have three young ones--one of them is just 2 years old--so this will help to keep the little ones contained.  The yurt is built like a giant circular baby gate with a door on it, then wrapped in canvas.  It's used in some of the most inhospitable areas of the world--Mongolia--so if you wrap it in wool and keep a small fire going inside, it's a very cozy little home.

We started with 2 x 2 lumber and ripped it in half twice, making four pieces of approximately 3/4".  It took three of us taking turns about three hours to rip it all into a pile of sticks.  

Each piece was 8' long, and we started drilling holes, the first 2" from the end, then every 8 1/2" down the length.  We got the first three holes drilled into each stick on Monday.  This pile of lumber is for TWO yurts--one will be 18' in diameter; the other will be 12' in diameter.  Ours is the smaller one that I am building for the kids to sleep in at events, but can easily be set up by one or two people if necessary.  

Today I continued on with the drilling holes, and it took about four or five hours to drill another 750 holes into the 150 or so sticks.  

The next big parts, after tying all the khana (wall) pieces together, is to try to build the tono and the door.  Kelly has some ideas for building the tono (the crown of the roof), but I also have a couple of back-up plans, should his plan not work.  I suspect his plan *will* work, but I've never made laminated wood before, so I'm not sure how that'll work, or how expensive it will be.

But for now, I'm beat.  My body needs a bit of vitamin I* and some sleep.

Elewys

*Vitamin I is Ibuprofen.