Laurel Nest Yurts

For those of you getting excited about our Complete Yurt Manual becoming available in July, we have a few sneak previews!  We have uploaded a few of the chapters that all yurt builders may use.

Our most recent upload, (a free download once you register) is an instructable for building a platform.

Yurt Platform Building

This is useful for all people who are setting their yurt up on a deck, whether you are a DIY builder or you purchase a complete kit.

The next upload that is available is about the pre-hung door.  This is helpful for people who purchase a kit or a DIY builder.  It allows you to install your new (or used) pre-hung door.

The last upload is a revision of our complete setup manual.  We also have a setup DVD available for those people who are more visual!

We are anticipating our next workshop in August.  People who attend the workshop will learn everything they need to know about building a yurt.  They will go home with some yurt parts and The Complete Yurt Manual.  E-mail or call us if you are interested in signing up.

We look forward to seeing some of you there! The workshop will include working on yurt building, some delicious meals in our community kitchen, and nature walks.  We hope it will be an inspiring weekend for us all!

Please let us know if you have any questions or if we can help in any way.

Lakeside view of the yurts at LEAF

This last weekend, Hal and I and 28 of our loved friends (and my mom!) came out and helped us roll sushi, make organic coconut carrot ginger soup, local home grown Asian greens, home grown salad, tempura and lots of other yummies…

For all the simplicity we love in life, we didn’t travel light, we brought four yurts with us!! One yurt was for the international booth, another one was our vending yurt, another was a grillin’ hangin’ and partyin’ place, and the last yurt was the prep yurt (with lakeside views…)

Our yurts were really unique and stood out from the EZ-UPS.  Lots of people asked questions and were interested in the yurts.  They wondered how long it takes to set up (when you get good, goes up in less than an hour) and how it handles wind (we weren’t fazed by the large wind gusts).  We fit all four yurts in our truck, as well as picnic benches, and lots of other random vendor related stuff.

The yurts were great to work in, and we felt like we were at home.  Yurtin’, glampin’, it’s the good life!  Best of all- it was Mother’s Day weekend, and my mom came! So my little girl Emilia got her mommy, and I got my mommy too…  Smiles all around!!

DIY with LNY

We’ve been getting a lot of interest in our Do-It-Yourself manual. I just thought I’d take a second to write and update on our progress in this area. We are working on a comprehensive manual that will teach suggest ways to build a yurt frame and sew a cover. Our first part, the section about building the frame will be available soon. We’re working on making it more comprehensive right now, adding pictures and better instructions so that it will be very user-friendly.

Why are we trying to teach people about building their own yurts? Our goal is to help people get into yurts. Hal learned how to build his first yurt from a download by Ellisif Flakkari (Monica Ciello) “Construction of a Yurt”.  See this web page for the dowload… www.pbm.com/~lindahl/articles/yurt/yurt.ps Since then, he’s been building more yurts for people all over, and trying to improve the design.

Hal, Emilia (our daughter), and I live in a yurt he built for us. In fact, when we were still talking about committing to each other and our relationship, he told me he would build my yurt for free, as long as I paid for the materials. Now I’m sold on yurts and I love ours so much. I hope my love for yurts and the wonderfully simple lifestyle will encourage others to try it out.

For now, if you are interested in building your yurt, we are happy to offer any information that would be helpful. As far as the manual, we are hoping to have it out at the very end of this winter or early spring… in the meantime we are always happy to help you build parts of your yurt yourself.

To the rest of us (me, included) what is another option? There’s lots of “yurt building for dummies”, areas where if you don’t have any carpentry skills or power tools, you can still participate in building your yurt. These are mostly “finishing options”. It’s the more mundane work, sanding and staining…

Putting together khanna is a great way to build part of your yurt.

Everyone can sand their own yurt. This can be done by purchasing sand paper at your local hardware store and spending a day sanding all the yurt parts. When you’re done sanding, you can spend a day treating the wood parts. You can stain, oil, or paint your yurt any color… The last thing you can do if you are interested in saving money is assembling your yurt. You can put your door frame together (hopefully with the help of a friend), your khanna (walls) together, and these are easy to do on your yurt floor/ deck.

Now you’re ready for a yurt-erecting party! Call all your friends, and download our set-up manual (on the downloads area at the bottom of the page). I recommend some live music, drinks, and tons of snacks… then you can keep having fun in your yurt when it’s all set up. Good luck!