The General State of Things.

The general state of the yurt after a year and more outside is as follows.

Inside: Absolutely tip top, no wood splits, no peeling paint (other than that which has blistered due to heat), averything holding out well. The horsehair string that holds the poles to the lattice walls also makes excellent bedding for fieldmice, as I found out after I caught two of them nesting in a drawer. Ingenious little beggars they are, they stole a variety of materials from around the yurt including a final layer of aluminium foil as a reflective surface. Quite how mice go to know about the thermal reflective properties of foil is beyond me.

Outside: The side of the yurt facing the trees and with least airflow has begun to go green and it looking grubby, the other side that catches the sun and wind is in excellent order. The time is coming for a major airing of all the layers and maybe a blast with a jetwash to get the green off.

The outriggers we made to make up for the incorrect measurement of the base are holding up well, but I fear they will not last as long as the rest of the base due to their being quite thin and closer to the elements than other parts of the structure.

All in all, I still love time spent in the fresh air, with good people and close to nature, all of which come with yurt life.

Robin Attack!!!

Ok, so there I am round the back of the yurt fiddling with the leisure battery when I hear "donk, donk donk donk....donk donk....donk....." coming from inside. I knew full well that no one was in there so I tentatively went round the front to have a look though the open door and was rather taken aback by a robin coming at me, full pelt! Luckily the cheeky little chap swerved at the last minute and escaped.
He had left, how shall we say, a few messages to indicate his presence. Curious as to why he was in there in the first place, I sat quietly and waited. Within a couple of minutes there was a flutter at the door, followed by the "donk donk donk...." I heard earlier. This time I saw exactly what the robin was up to, he was attacking my toaster! He must have flown past the open door, seen his reflection in the chrome toaster and got all alpha male over the idea of another robin on his patch. The little bugger was furious, flapping and jumping around, showing his bum to the toaster and generally being a thug. I'll try and lure him back next week and get some footage.

Brrrr!!!!!

After the crazy high temperatures of the last two weeks, we have finally settled into more seasonal weather, i.e. it's FREEZING by comparison. A good opportunity to try the paraffin heater in earnest and I must say it's superb. From about 6c, the heater brought the yurt up to t shirt temperature in about 10 minutes with no mad temperature spikes with the wood burner.

Time will tell whether it's up to the job when it gets really cold. Watch this space.

Winter Heating Rethink

I'm switching to paraffin heating for this winter, the fire was nice but the cost of buying logs and finding suitable kindling was ridiculous. Obviously having a fire in the yurt transforms it totally, but the unpredictable nature of the temperature rises and falls with a large fire mean that it's a constant battle trying to keep a stable temperature going. In addition to that, I spend long periods of time in the workshop, tinkering, and in that time the fire normally fizzles.
Anyhoo, the Prity will probably be leaving the yurt this weekend and the space it took up will be utilised as a kitchen area for preparing and cooking nosh. It's an ideal spot, right under the lightest area of the yurt and near what will soon be a ventilation hole (where the chimney went).
Here's the heater (2.5kw technically), will run for about 17 hours on a 3.8l fill.



Obviously it's possible that it won't be up to the job, but the advantages of running something as stable and compact as this heater, outweigh the advantages of a fire, which are mostly aesthetic.

Been a while...

Well, here we are, August already and I've spent pretty much every spare day I can in the yurt. It's been lovely not to have to faff around with the fire every day and be able to get up in the mornings without the desparate sprint to the fire to re-kindle it. The downside is that the kind of food I can eat has changed a little because of the lack of outside refrigeration services one finds in winter. Mainly it's been new potatoes from the garden, and tomatoes, pasta, stuff like that.

A new addition to the tech side of the yurt is a solar powered fan. I re-adapted the yurtcon to suck fresh air in from outside whenever there is enough light to power the fan. Solar panel is a £20 job from Maplins, tucked under one of the crown cover straps. This way there is a constant flow of fresh air coming into the yurt even when I'm away. Eventually it will become an extractor and mounted in a clear section of the crown, this will be to overcome the problem of condensation when cooking, or on hot days when there is something wet inside, like a towel.

I've gone back to the Squadron leisure batteries, doubled up and linked to the solar panel. The Elecsol batteries don't last that well and trying to get any empathy from the person who imports them is like getting blood from a stone. They are ok, but nothing more than that.

Wind turbine is next on the list, right after I have become Moped Overlord, keeper of all Velosolexes (that might take a while)

Z.

Ah! Almost forgot. Insect de jour is the earwig, omnipresent, indestructable, infinitely creepy, you can't even pick the blasted things up and throw them out, they have some sort of anti-human forcefield around them. I am in consultation with the ladybirds, I've told them the earwigs dissed the ladybirds big time. Hopefully this will result in some sort of turf war in which earwig numbers are decimated as a result of scuttle by shootings by gangs of ladybird yoofs. One can but hope.

Wonderful Annoyances

It has to be said, one of the biggest differences between sleeping in a yurt and sleeping in a house is the connection you feel with what it on the other side of the wall. It's hard to beat the feeling of falling asleep to the sometimes comical hooting of owls, or waking to the dawn chorus of what sounds like several thousand songbirds tweeting their little heads off. The have also been a few mystery sounds, yips, barks, yelps, probably foxes or possibly Black Shuck!!! WooOOOOOOoooooOOOooo!!!

The next few weeks will see a slight interior re-design, things that have not been used in the last 6 months will be going, that includes a couple of the leather sofa chairs, and a very nice Bene office cabinet will be pepping up the storage situation.

Storing the duvet in the dragon box has proved to be a winner, it comes out on a Friday night dry as a bone and much easier to get warmed up.

The yurt structure is holding well, the paint on the uprights has bubbled due to the heat (and the heat has been a bit extreme sometimes, so no fault there) and the front door has swollen a little and sill need a bit skimming off the bottom soon. I am so looking forward to spring and summer, not so much looking forward to finding out which particular insect will be joining me though the warmer months.

Spring.

Spring is almost here and I'm sure it will bring a few challenges such as sticky tree buds and ladybirds. The most obvious potential problem will be cooking bread and tatties when the temperature outside is warm. Lighting a fire will be out of the question, maybe it's time to start looking at caravan ovens.
On the subject of cooking, the camping stove that the Welshman threw in with a campervan I bought, has performed beautifully. It's hard to imagine how a full size hob could improve things, so it's staying put for now.
Spring will also bring a furniture review, sumptuous leather chairs for 4 aren't really needed, so three will probably go and be replaced by a beanbag and some more storage. Storage hasn't been a massive problem, maybe it's just a case of living to your means but I dare say it would zoom up the scale of importance if this mini adventure went full time.
One handy tip for anyone thinking of spending time in a yurt, keep your duvet in a wooden box while you are away, despite the yurt being totally waterproof, duvets and bedding certainly "felt" a bit damp after being on the bed for a week. It might have just been the cold, but keeping the duvet in the dragon box means that it's out of the atmosphere and stays fresh and dry.