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Super Ger Urgh Replacement DIY

Published on by beamingtoyou

One of the benefits of living in a yurt is the many options for DIY repairs that can save money and exercise practical skills. While authentic Mongolian gers are made of traditional natural materials not found at the Home Depot, our ‘Yurt Daddy’ Yves encouraged us upon set up of our Super Ger in 2016 to not be afraid of innovating and making fixes with more conventional hardware store items. As much as we’d love to keep the authenticity of the horsehair ropes and other original equipment for time eternal, this was one more repair where we took Yves’ advice (after upgrading to ratchet straps). Read on to see what we did this time!

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Super Ger Canvas Replacement

Published on by beamingtoyou

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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Super Ger Toono Window Repair

Published on by beamingtoyou

After five years, the vinyl windows in our Super Ger toono (the compression ring or dome) finally gave out. We had a little spring hail storm roll through and the brittle vinyl couldn’t take the abuse. With more rain in the forecast, we had to hustle to make the fix. Check out the step-by-step below!

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Groovy Yurts Sahalee Off Grid

Groovy Yurts Super Ger Review

Published on by beamingtoyou

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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Super Ger!!

Published on by beamingtoyou

We were under the gun on Friday to position and assemble the platform in time for the yurt arrival on Saturday morning. It sounded a lot simpler than it really was.

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Let the south side sunshine in

Published on by beamingtoyou

Have you ever been to the Forest at Meow Wolf in Santa Fe? The feeling of walking on the floor under the big tree there is something indescribable… Maybe something like random mounds of spring-loaded marshmallows underneath the carpet. Well, that is how the floor of the porch on the south side of the casa felt when you walked on it. There were layers of dirty musty carpet on top of who knows what that gave way under your feet in certain spots. It was very unsettling.

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Movin’ on up

Published on by beamingtoyou

We’ve had a couple of weeks to settle in now to the new routine upon the big deck. It’s been longtime in coming since we endured a mud-laden summer, fall, winter, and spring in our old roughed-out location buoyed on cinder blocks down the hill. (Quite literally, we have had to shake off our sea legs from walking upon our very poorly platform for the past 12 months.)

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The big deck

Published on by beamingtoyou

The big deck came a year after the yurt, but the “yurtdeck” was always part of the master plan. We didn’t have time to build before we moved in last June, so we got cracking just as soon as we could earlier this spring.

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Off-grid finance

Published on by beamingtoyou

Making the move from suburban Florida to rural New Mexico was meant to satisfy several wants and needs. One of the main objectives for starting a homestead from scratch was to live without the financial burden of paying a mortgage or facing the temptation to keep up with the Jones’ and live a life of pure convenience.

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Never bet against Sahalee Off Grid

My family bet against me

Published on by beamingtoyou

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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