Hello all
Here is a picture to inspire us:
Which is where we are as I write this. Currently 6ºC daytime, expected below zero (again) by early next week. Not much probability of rain currently predicted.
Unfortunately, this is only one layer of the three we need to cover the yurt with – the cotton lining. Next come the felt (for heat retention) and canvas (for weatherproofing).
We got quite a long way with the felt walls – which come in 3 sections with a clever interlocking system for stringing them to each other – before we realised we only had an hour left before we would be turfed out of the nursery, which has a strict regime of gate locking at 4pm (when it would be too dark to do anything anyway). We were also getting a bit dispirited with the fact that the slightly warmer weather today meant that all the ground round the yurt, outside our gravel drainage trench, had become as muddy as Glastonbury, and we didn't want to drop the felt (or anything else) into the 'fields of mud poo' that lie immediately outside our yurt space's gravel drainage trench.
So, with rather heavy hearts, the three of us took down the felt walls we had struggled with for an hour or so, and stored them away in a dry metal container (much drier than the polytunnel). As the weather forecast does not predict much rain, we didn't feel we also had to take the cotton liner off. If it gets wet with a bit of rain or snow – it should soon dry off (especially when we get it warmed up inside).
So the next two big jobs – putting the felt around the cotton lining, and covering the whole thing with the canvas layer – still need doing. And we are all busy people...
Then, to make it a bit more difficult still, David, Matthew and I think that amateurs like us need at least five people to do the next bit easily (though you can probably do it with less when you know the drill). The felt walls will need four people holding them up while one does all the strings, for example. It's even more critical in the middle of a winter mudbath as the felt must never sit in mud or puddles – because it will instantly
become soggy and useless, as capillary action sucks up all the water around it. And we want to avoid making all the covers muddy because there aren't enough of us to hold them up while we're tying them in place.
We don't yet know what delights might await us with the next stages, which are, in rough order:
- Felt roof (the instructions suggest that as long as we lay it out the right way, it just rolls into place – one piece at the front and one for the back)
- Canvas wall (we need Julia, Mary & John for this bit – but you won't get what that means till you see the instructions from Yurt Workshop)
- Canvas roof (unrolls and unfolds into place, seems to need prodding with roof poles. Then lots of webbing to hold everything together)
- Crown cover (and strap it down to secure the whole thing against stormy weather)
- Chimney hole (with temporary flue borrowed from the Nursery till we get our own)
- Installing stove (proper footings etc)
So here's our latest plan...
1. This Saturday: day off. No action.
2. On Monday:
- Clean up all the felt layer's attachment strings (some of which got a mud bath today) – as they will probably show through, or put their mud onto the cotton liner.
- Assemble all the felt pieces 'ready to go' in the dry area of the polytunnel we are in. (But keep them in the dry metal container until we actually are ready to go).
- Ditto for the canvas wall & roof
- And talk through exactly what we need to do to get the felt and canvas covers finished.
3. Next weekend: recruit all community members, family and friends we can for the final push (as above)...
SATURDAY 18 DECEMBER – PLEASE COME AND HELP IF YOU CAN.
Hot soup, jacket potatoes, bread, nice cheese, interesting paté, hot and cold drinks, cake and chocolates provided.
Children welcome.
RSVP to David or Rex
4. Start organising the long-awaited 'yurt-warming party' for Feb/Mar.
And Happy Christmas, everybody!
Rex
Our last visit before the holiday season - when we're not going to be able to do anything, as the Slough Council Nursery will be completely shut up and locked until after New Year.
