Yurt Life: Living Round

Greetings Steemians!
Fun fact about me: I have lived in a yurt for just over half of my twenty-two years. Wait, wait, wait... what in the heck is a yurt, you ask? Is it related to a yak or some other y-word? Nope!

A yurt or ger is a traditional architectural design for a home, traditionally used in Mongolia and nearby zones. These homes are defined by their:

• circularity
• latticed supports
• portability
• cloth coverings

I was born in 1995 in a small Pacific Yurt in the exact location of our current 24ft Pacific Yurt (check out their site). I lived with my family of four in that yurt until I was ten years old when we migrated to the wooden house on the property. Coming back to the land after graduating uni and living in the same exact place as my birth has been a magical opportunity, for which I am deeply grateful.

don't fret yet, I put a full photo tour at the end of these descriptive paragraphs for you skimmers!

---

The yurt we live in now came to us after a series of unfortunate events. A friend of my family had purchased this beautiful Pacific Yurt brand new, and was planning on living out the rest of his days peacefully on the land with us. Incredibly, the day the yurt was delivered to us to be set up, our friend was hospitalized with a brain tumor the size of a grapefruit in the left hemisphere of his brain. He is alive today because Pacific Yurts called him to notify him of delivery, and the person calling took emergency action when our friend was unable to communicate. (Thank you, whoever you are out there, your call to 911 saved his life!)

After his tumor removal operation he did move to the land, and initially spent the winter living in the yurt being cared for by my father. Before long, his physical and mental conditions could not allow him to stay living in the yurt, and he has since moved into the larger 'regular' house on the property (where he has amazingly come back into himself~ a miracle story about the varying effects of pharmaceuticals for another time!).

So, due to this and a few other variables, Austin and I were moved into the yurt, giving our room to the caretaker who would be taking over for us. Now, we have made this yurt a home! We started with the bare bone infrastructure: floor, canvas walls, beautiful glass windows, and a woodstove. My previous yurt-home did not have the luxury of this fresh yurt, with two plastic windows and a single wooden door. Our current yurt boasts two entrances, one front door and a lovely set of glass french doors onto the porch. We also have two glass windows overlooking the river, additional to the two plastic window inserts in the canvas walls. The extra light from the windows is incredible, and makes our river and forest views quite magical. Here in Oregon we have pretty cold wet winters, and being beside the river we have a constant air flow from the ever charging current of water just down the slope from our yurt. The glass seems to allow a bit more of the woodstove heat to pass through, but it's nothing we can't counteract with another log on the fire! I fully endorse adding windows if possible, simply because the added proximity to nature just can't be beat.

---

We've got some photos to share!

I've arranged these pics so that it starts beside the river, and allows Steemians and Minnows alike to photographically venture up towards the yurt from the riverside, check it out from the outside, then experience what we have done with the interior. Comment with any questions and I will be sure to get back to you! We are always happy to share deeper into this experience to help those of you who may not have access to the home, land or natural materials which are so abundant for us in this time.

Hope you enjoy!

---

The mildest section of our river is what passes beside the yurt, further upstream we have a magical set of waterfalls.

---

The yurt sits under two huge trees, making our dome a shimmery maple-leaf-green in summertime!

---

---

---

---

---

The kitchen was a big part of making this space livable, and we just accomplished hot water to the sink! I will post some more elaborate articles on our gravity spring water system and interior plumbing. Our toilet is currently an outdoor composting toilet, and will be getting an upgrade soon!

---

---

---

---