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Super Ger Canvas Replacement

Traditional Mongolian gers were covered with animal hides with a regular cycle of replacement. The modern version from Groovy Yurts offers water resistant canvas with a lovely decoration. This natural cotton material helps the yurt to moderate humidity inside when combined with the natural felt insulation (and an optional modern moisture barrier in our case). We first setup our Super Ger in 2016 and then moved it to the big deck in 2017. Left in place under the intense New Mexico skies for the last five years, the canvas on our yurt started to show wear in a number of ways and required a total replacement. Read on to see more about yurt life.

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Groovy Yurts Super Ger Review

I mentioned ‘tipi’ with an air of seriousness, and the discussion wobbled clumsily off of the Airstream. (You can read more about why a yurt.) From viewing the enticing collection of nomadic structures at Colorado Yurt Co., to drawing out a footprint 20′ in diameter in our Florida front yard, our plans for long-term temporary shelter at Sahalee came full circle with Groovy Yurts.

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My family bet against me

Our first winter season at Sahalee is now officially under our belts!! We learned just recently that we had a few family members bet that we wouldn’t make it (we’ll save the names for a more opportune time). Pretty sure there were even more skeptics out there, but we’re happy to report that we found ourselves on the right side of the wood pile for the winter of 16/17! Not to say that it was all pretty (and the mild weather may have gone easy on us), but we learned a lot and definitely feel a sense of accomplishment.

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Reality bites

Happy December!! Since we are celebrating six months, I guess now is as good a time as any to do our best to explain how we’re making out since La Nina left laughing at us…

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La Nina leaves this lady leery

Forty below they said. Nine feet of snow they said. First flurries by Halloween they said. All of these threats weighed heavily on our minds since loading in at the start of summer. We prioritized our to-do list accordingly by trying to amass a mound of firewood, situating and insulating the water tank to avoid freezing, raising our solar array, mounting our snow tires and securing chains, ordering snowshoes, stocking up on dry goods, and enclosing the potty, among other things. While there is always more to do – And you never quite feel adequately prepared going into the cold season no matter what you do – we were also making mental preparations to steel ourselves against a typical bitterly-cold winter to arrive on schedule. Now, it’s almost Thanksgiving and we’ve barely touched 20 degrees overnight with only a random rain shower. As if we didn’t have enough to anticipate for the first of the year with the election fallout, we’re left wondering if La Nina is going to make this winter a non-event, or bring it on with a furious force.

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Home is where the hearth is

Suddenly, all seems right with the world.

We spent a full day on Saturday laying in the new flooring in the front half of the yurt so we could place the stove, pan, pipe, and cap. Everything came together on Sunday with the custom installation since they don’t sell pre-fab yurt roof chimney vents at Home Depot.

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Confessions, part 2

Almost three months of being on the mountain, and we’re still acclimating to off-grid living. Overall, things are great and we’re still happy with our decision to go through with this big adventure, but this entry continues where we left off from our original Confessions to provide the full picture of what it’s like to start a homestead from scratch.

I confess…

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Fire and Water

Wood-burning stove, check.

Water supply tank, check.

Still working to bring our basic off-grid utilities into service a month after arrival, so here’s an update on how the pieces are coming together.

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