We finally finished our yurt building manual, and it is for sale!!! This is a big milestone, as we’ve been working on it for the last 3 years.  Thanks to Becky Kemery. who suggested we write the manual, we now offer a comprehensive DIY Build a Yurt Manual! It’s the only one we know of, and we hope it empowers people all over the world to make their yurts.

Hal travelled to Hawaii to the yurt makers conference, and developped strong connections with other yurtmakers and collaborators in the yurt industry.  NAYA, the North American Yurt Alliance was formed.  Many companies have joined and our conference calls are a great opportunity for us to come together to create a yurt industry standard.  Our collaborative effort is to explore better fabrics, methods and ultimately have the yurt added to the International Building Code as an approved residential structure.

Back Home Magazine featured our company on the cover of their magazine, and wrote a nice story about our company and it’s mission.  We’re working with other publications that like our “DIY” approach, and would like to see our small company grown and serve more people.

In November, we moved our yurt manufacturing studio to our land, and moved from one warehouse into several yurts and structures.  Instead of the 4,000 sq ft. warehouse, we have a 24’ diameter sewing studio, 18’ yurt woodshop, a 15’ window making station yurt, and a 15’ liner making station yurt, as well as long cutting tables in our school bus.  It’s been fun walking to work and having the office hallways be trails in the woods.

From a personal side, I accomplished some lifelong goals I’ve had for a long time.  I completed kundalini yoga teacher training and did a Radiant Child yoga training with Shakta Kaur Khalsa.  I’m certified now to teach all ages, and we will be hosting various workshops in 2012, from an 8 week series Chakra Workshop, to yurt building workshops, to meditation retreats.

Lucky Hal  traveled again, this time to Santa Cruz CA to teach a yurt building workshop.  Hopefully this will be the first of many trips Laurel Nest Yurts makes to teach people all over how to build yurts.  We are considering doing a workshop in Costa Rica… hope to see you there!

Looking forward, we will solidify our yurt engineering specifications with Steven Kicinski, of Ellisport Engineering.  We will help NAYA fulfill it’s mission to make yurts a viable and affordable residential option anywhere.  Imagine… a yurt downtown Asheville (or anywhere), and a primary residence for someone who purchased an empty lot… I see visions of urban permaculture and community building… and more and more people choosing this route.  We will continue to assist people to find the most affordable and sustainable solution to modern living, the yurt, and one that built.  We’ve really got the whole world in our hands…

As the new year moves forward, I have so much gratitude to our customers and to our extend Laurel Nest Yurts family.  It wouldn’t be possible without you.  Those of you who are still in the dream phase, let’s make 2012 a fruitful year.  According to the Mayan calendar, it’s the end of the Piscean Age.  To us yogis, it’s the start of a new age, an age of awareness and simplicity.  Let’s make it the time of realising our dreams to live, love, yurt!

Moving home, walking the walk of sustainable business and living...

Over the last year, we’ve been making some major changes at Laurel Nest Yurts that have improved our excitement and love of making yurts for all of you!!  We are making strides towards living our personal dream of sustainability.  Over the last year and a half we were building a home studio that we can work from and this November we moved in!!

It was a crazy month- packing up our 4,000 square foot manufacturing facility and moving everything to our home-based workshop.  From the home front, we prepared 3 yurts and built a beautiful 26′ diameter sewing studio, with a 30′ yurt as a second floor.  We relocated our 18′ demo yurt and turned it into a wood shop on our land.  Now our home office/studio is pretty unique and makes me think of how nice it must have been to be Smurfette!

So, just for fun, I thought I would share some pictures from our move, to share a slice of our life with you.  We worked around the clock for several weeks with help from a couple of friends and Hal’s dad Al, his tractor, and a bunch of trailers…

Packing up the wood shop into the yurt truck...

We packed our bus full of fabric and cutting tables, jumped it off and parked it at home...

Who would have thought Hal is such a good tetris player? (Moving shelves...)

Moving sewing machines...

Our new yurt manufacturing studio....

Panaroma of sewing studio...

Panorama of yurt making studio... (and still a work in progress...)

Panorama of yurt making studio...

Window making station down the hill...

Our 12' materials storage yurt...

Our 15' window making yurt... built 7 years ago...

Our crafting yurt, home of liner making!

A few words to share about our new studio, for those of you who are trying to build sustainably and with recycled materials.  All the beautiful large bay windows we purchased from a local man that finds building materials and resells them, for $20/piece.  The beautiful wooden walls are 5/4″ boards that we used to use for rafters, then changed our design, and now have a new use We recycled leftover refletix insulation for the ceiling and used scraps and recycled materials purchased from habitat for the rest of the project.  Our total materials for the downstairs was under $1,000.  The yurt upstairs we built with seconds parts and used scrap fabric for the walls, as well as windows that were purchased used.  At some point we will paint the entire canvas with moss green Earthpaint.

So the layout now– a 12′ office yurt (still need to unpack, trying to figure out how to get internet in our corner of the woods), a 15′ window making station with neighboring 12′ yurt for storage of materials (zipper tape, fabric, window making supplies, thread, needles, etc…), 15′ “crafting” yurt, that houses our serger and is home to liner making, 18′ yurt wood shop, 26′ multi-sided studio space that is home to sewing of roofs, assembling walls and sewing bands and webbing on roof and walls, school bus with cutting tables for measuring and cutting roof and window panels, and finally 30′ yurt for cutting roof frustom.

Whew… now you see why I feel like a modern day yurtette?

Yurt Retreat in Santa Cruz area...

We are offering a “Complete Yurt Building Experience” and a DIY Yurt Building Workshop.

Our yurt building workshops give you all the skills you need to:

• Build the platform

• Plan, design and build your walls, roof and tono.

• Install framed and mesh windows and skylight

• Sew your yurt cover out of Canvas

• Erect the yurt

Learn to make all yurt components at the workshop!

Participants leave with

• Yurt building manual

• List of vendors for all raw materials

• Knowledge on how to use all the necessary tools

• Strong foundation for building your own yurt

The cost for the workshop is $125 to help cover costs incurred by workshop (snacks, materials, instructors, printing of the manual, etc.)  We will have a limit of 10 people at our workshop, snacks and camping available.

“I loved the hands-on options. Thanks for the background, so that personal modifications [to the yurts] can be made… I would recommend this workshop to others!”

“The workshop was awesome! People had a great time and learned a lot…There were people who already knew a lot, and people like me who were total beginners, and everyone was comfortable and got a chance to learn.  Thanks Hal, Charlie, Asia, and everyone for a great weekend!”

Join us at the DIY Yurt Building Workshop December 8-11!

If you would like to participate in deck building and other parts of the yurt process, we will be hosting a “Complete Yurt Experience” for the week prior the the workshop.  Work trade opportunities may be available.

For more information or registration contact:
Adrian
831-338-8300
adriantepperman@gmail.com

The Yurtle ladies on their finished yurt!

This summer we built an 18′ Yurtle for a high school senior.  Her plans are to live in the yurt over the next few years on her parent’s land and then take it to college to save money on housing!

It was a great project, and Hanna, her mom, and sister came to stay with us for a week and help with the building of the yurt and trailer.  They worked hard all week! 

Some of the things that kept them busy:

They helped with sewing the cover.  Hanna chose her fabric, and assisted us in the sewing studio.  She was a part of all the calculations (sigh), cutting, and assembling of the fabric cover.  Her mom, Shelley, did some sewing of the roof and wall canvas.

The ladies all worked together on the finishing options of the yurt, all the sanding and staining… this kept them busy for a few days and allowed them to give their personal touch to the yurt.  They also did the painting, staining, and finishing of the decking for the trailer. 

Charlie, our wood shop manager also helped them in many aspects of the yurt making.  He guided them in the assembly of the ring, and helped them with making their rafters. They learned so much about each part of the yurt and had an immersion crash course in yurtle building! 

Since it was so hot, they took breaks in the middle of the day to take dips in the river and enjoy some of beautiful mountains.  They stayed in a yurt at our community and used our kitchen for cooking meals and preparing snacks.  We enjoyed their company and wish Hanna the best of luck in her Yurtle! 

Hi Hal and everyone at Laurel Nest Yurts!
We’ve enjoyed our last year and half in our yurt, it has been an amazing
experience living in it year-round! We were so cozy in it this winter
after we had insulated our deck and walls! Thank you so much for such an
amazing structure, we can never live in a square again!
We hope business is going well, and we always have friends ask us about
who made our yurt! 
Persa & Chelsea

The Hoffmans ordered some parts from us and chose to build other parts themselves.  We sent them the ring, the khana, un-assembled, and the yurt cover.  They built their own rafters, door frame, and assembled their khana.  They did all the staining and finishing themselves, and were able to save over $1,000.  For the cover, they picked Starfire fabric and we ordered it in colors of their choice.   The yurt is beautiful, and has their loving labor in each piece!

Kudos to the Hoffmans, and enjoy the slide show of their yurt-story…

The Hoffman

Here are the yurt parts that were ordered from Laurel Nest Yurts...

The Hoffmans assembled their khana.

Setting up the yurt!

Yurt exterior with wood stove panel... no wood stove , yet!

A first night in the yurt!!

Thanks Danielle for sending us the pictures!

Eric and Anna walk dog food home 2 miles, photo from Tampa Bay paper, http://www.tampabay.com/features/humaninterest/a-st-petersburg-couple-learns-no-impact-living-can-have-a-big-impact/1164911

Over the last year they made a decision to create 12 months of change, and last month was Volunteering.  Here is their New Year’s resolution: (go to this website for more…  http://www.codegreencommunity.org/profiles/blogs/12-months-of-change)

January-unprocessed food (no more than 2 steps in the processing, no preservatives)
February-no spending month (no money spent except for housing and utilities)
March-unplug month (only one appliance on the grid and we all vote for the fridge/freezer)
April-alternative transportation (buses and bikes and feet, oh my!)
May-no plastic brought into the house (seriously, think about that…..)
June-alternative income (everything we can come up with to make a buck or barter for our needs besides our jobs)
July-volunteer month  (WWOOF farm?)
August-alternative cooking (solar oven, cook boxes, etc)
September-primitive skills  (gun safety, fire starting, animal harvesting, foraging)
October-local products/shops only (is ABC Liquor really Florida owned??  I need to know!)
November-no garbage (nothing goes in the dumpster)
December-no entertainment except for what we create

Eric and Anna finished the floor and painted it with an Earthpaint. Thanks guys!

When Eric and Anna came, amongst other projects, they finished our floor of our 30′ yurt and we were able to host our 1st yoga class!!  We made the floor with a stain-grade plywood and painted it with some moss green Earthpaint.  It’s amazing how they helped us in so many ways, both by their inspiring work and refreshing and wise outlook on life.  I was so moved by their generosity, and inspired by what they are accomplishing with their year of change.  How amazing that they felt like they benefitted as much as we did, from their weeks of hard work and help.

Yoga in the 30' yurt

The night before Eric and Anna left, we were able to host our first yoga class in the yurt.  Eric said it was the first of more yoga classes to come.  It was exciting to experience a dream coming true, teaching a yoga class out of our 30′ yurt!!  Thank you Eric and Anna Scott for helping make this happen!

Our glass windows offer a beautiful alternative to fabric windows.

Our glass window option utilizes a Low-E thermal glass window for maximum energy efficiency, and can be easily accessorized for a personalized look.  The most  tangible benefit of the glass windows is that they can be opened from inside.  When we build the window frame, we eliminate the lattice that crisscrosses through the standard yurt window and give you a beautiful view open view through the window. 

Real Windows can be added to your standard yurt package, or you can easily build them yourself...

The glass new window system can be installed virtually anywhere along the wall of any of our yurts, and can be ordered with a new yurt package or you can build one yourself, and add it to your own custom yurt project.

*For people with chemical sensitivities, glass windows offer a wonderful option for building a yurt with completely natural materials.

“Hey, would you guys ever consider an advanced workshop on stuff like how you power and plumb the yurts in your community? I know covering everything would be too much.I’d be more than satisfied with just knowing how you guys are making it all work. I am about ready to start on my yurt (finally!) and the thing that I am hung up with is off-grid power generation, where to find a composting toilet affordably, etc. , and how t do the nuts and bolts stuff of getting the yurt turned into a complete living space.”

We get requests from our customers to help them with all aspects of yurt living, so I thought I’d take a minute to answer this request more thoroughly in this blog.

So… just to answer some of these questions, I’ll give you a little food for thought, and then I promise I will do some research and give some more in-depth answers…  but to start with some basics, we have some suggestions for low-impact living that can make your life much more comfortable.

• Going to the bathroom

We suggest using compost toilets for your yurt.  There are several brands you can explore, and you may make choices based on their cost, size, and other qualities.  Some people choose to dig big holes and use the old-fashioned outhouses.  This is a fun option, but check local codes, as they may not be permitted.  We usually suggest doing a good bit of research on this, and ordering directly from the company.

The carousel compost toilet

At our home, we have two types of compost toilets.  One is the Biolet compost toilet  (see http://www.biolet.com/products/) which is good for a few people in a space that gets climate controlled all year. We like this toilet, and the people at this company are very helpful and nice. The Biolet works optimally when the temperature is 65 or warmer, so you wouldn’t want this toilet if you don’t heat the space all the time in the winter.  There are other top brands, including Sun-Mar, Envirolet, Ecotech.  I love the Ecotech Carousel model, which is a large capacity toilet and has 4 chambers that you rotate.  This means the matter stays in the toilet for longer and when you remove it, it is ready to go.  It’s pretty amazing and from what I can tell this is a wonderful company. They will even give you plans to make your own toilet (which is really aligned with how we do things, so I love this!!) I have not used this toilet, but the ideas sound excellent to me.  It’s on my wish list… http://www.ecological-engineering.com/carousel.html Our other toilet runs on the same principle, but instead of 4 chambers, we use a barrel and when it’s full we put it in the sun to cook for a year.

• Plumbing with a gray-water system (not black water!)

Any wash water that has been used in the home, except water from toilets, is called gray water. Dish, shower, sink, and laundry water comprise 50-80% of residential “waste” water.  It’s a waste to irrigate with great quantities of drinking water when plants thrive on used water containing small bits of compost. Unlike a lot of ecological stopgap measures, grey water reuse is a part of the fundamental solution to many ecological problems and will probably remain essentially unchanged in the distant future.

The US Green Building Council, the City of Santa Barbara, CA, Oregon ReCode, and SLO Green Build are among those organizations which independently chose greywater standards as the technology with which to launch their programs of regulatory reform.  In practice, greywater legality is virtually never an issue for residential retrofit systems—everyone just bootlegs them. However, grey water legality is almost always an issue for permitted new construction and remodeling, unless you’re in a visionary state such as Arizona, New Mexico, Texas (and soon, NV, MT, OR, and CA).  Find out about local codes, and do it responsibly.  But, try to create a system for the most efficient water usage and you will truly have a low-impact lifestyle.  This website is a great start for more information: http://www.oasisdesign.net/greywater/index.htm

• Off- grid power generation ideas

There is lots of ways to generate power.  Some people choose to apply for a temporary power pole, so that while they’re building another structure they can access this electricity source.  This is often an inexpensive interim solution, so you can get settled in your yurt and then later explore which off-grid power choice is the best.  Some options include: solar, wind, water, and a bicycle generator.

My favorite is the bicycle generator, which is basically a bicycle stand that allows you to power a battery that will then power low-watt devices.  One company that offers a ready made is  Pedal-a-Watt.  The average rider will produce between 125 and 300 watts using the Pedal-a-Watt.  While this may not seem like much power, many pieces of equipment draw very little power and can be powered for long spans of time with small amounts of power.  For example, a laptop only draws 70 watts so one 20 minute workout could run the laptop for over an hour.  This is ideal when you don’t have a lot of things running electricity- maybe a light, cell phone, laptop, small music player…  http://www.econvergence.net/electro.htm

Solar power is an option if you have lots of sun.

DIY solar kit from Sundance Solar

We live in the middle of the woods, and so this is not really an option for us. Our local company is Sundance Solar and they are an awesome company.  If you are considering solar, I urge you to look into their webpage, store.sundancesolar.com/ They have DIY solar kits available that are very affordable and also offer a wealth of resources.  Wind, or turbine energy is another great option, although if the wind doesn’t blow, the turbine stays still and the electricity isn’t generated. Wind turbines also have moving parts, which means more things that require maintenance and have the possibility of failure. But if you’ve got a good consistent stiff breeze blowing through the back yard, you can harvest its energy for years to come.  A last option, if you have a stream in your backyard, is  microhydro electricity.  It’s produced from the energy in water flowing from a high level to a lower level that turns a turbine at the bottom end of the system. Microhydro electricity generation can be the most cost effective of the three, according to Energy Alternatives Ltd., “Our experience with micro hydro systems has demonstrated that water power will produce between 10 and 100 times more power than PV or wind for the same capital investment.” If your source is good, it runs 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, providing lots of off-grid energy for a long, long time; because it produces so much more consistent energy, fewer batteries are needed to store the energy because there is less (or zero) time that the system isn’t harvesting energy.

I’ll do a little research on these systems, and write another specific blog about each one… look for more to come.

• Staying warm and cool through the seasons

We have a whole section of our FAQ that deals with this, so check it out!!  Let u know if you have more questions, and I’ll get to them! I’ll be updating our FAQ with this info, so stay posted!  http://www.laurelnestyurts.com/heating-and-cooling-a-yurt

Members of the Yurt Industry Join Hands!

The beautiful breakfast spread at the conference...

Hal just got back from the 2nd Annual Yurtmaker’s Conference in Hawaii, where he spent a week with other yurt manufacturer’s and various other people in the industry.  He had a great time making connections with the owners of the other yurt companies and also had the opportunity to share his ideas and potential solutions about a variety of issues pertinent in the industry.

The people who attended included Blue Ridge Yurts, Colorado Yurt Company, Yurts of Hawaii, Becky Kemery, Hearthworks and Ellisport Engineering.  Hal really enjoyed making connections with the other yurt manufacturers, Dan and Emma of Colorado Yurts and Kathy and Sharon of Blue Ridge Yurts.  It was nice to see the different yurt designs and learn from companies that have been in the industry for 30+ years!

The entrance to the "Hawaiian Retreat"

Some of the issues they touched upon were:

• They met with an insurance representative who started the process of developing a specific set of guidelines for insuring yurts.
• They discussed permitting of yurts and the need for all the manufacturers to come together as an industry to write  codes and regulations that are specific to yurts.
  
• Fabric options were explored and shared.
  
• Insulation options and testing of insulation was a common goal for all the yurt manufacturers so that an accurate comparative r-value can be determined.
• NAYA, the North American Yurt Alliance was formed.  More information and links to the website,  in a blog coming soon!
• They met with a extreme weather engineer and learned about the many severe weather conditions that may create a potential failure and also learned ways to increase the strength of a yurt.

Hawaiian Yellow ginger! Yum!

On Saturday of the conference they had a traditional Hawaiian Luau, complete with a panel discussion on yurts. Becky Kemery, author of “Yurts, Living in the Round” did a slide show.  Tara Weightman, from Hearthworks in England, also did a presentation, on traditional steam bent frame yurts from Kyrgyzstan,  and was Hal’s roommate!  Check out the Hearthworks website, http://www.hearthworks.co.uk.

When Hal came back, he brought me a ton of yellow ginger and we have been making a wonderful ginger drink.  The ginger in Hawaii is yellow, and is sweeter than the more typical white ginger.  Thanks to Melissa of Yurts of Hawaii for planning such a wonderful conference!  And thanks to Elvira and Hughes (biker dude) from the “Your Hawaiian Retreat”, http://yourhawaiianretreat.org/ for being such amazing hosts! The daily fruit-filled breakfast makes me drool with envy!