we could sleep here now (almost)

Hello from the Yurtles, as my aunt as taken to calling us, as soon (relatively speaking)-to-be yurt dwellers. A quick update on the yurt and farm progress here. Overall, we're feeling pleased with progress. We have the roof on; windows installed, trimmed, and caulked; and have materials to start framing the mudroom/addition. It's amazing how getting the space enclosed makes it much easier to imagine inhabiting the space. We probably could spend the night there now, though the absence of a door might let in a few too many bugs. We were lucky to have excellent help from Dave and Justin Jenckes, who show up in the roof installation pictures. Their skills, enthusiasm, and strength were essential for getting the roof finished this past Wednesday.

A few notes about the phots, which, as usual are not in a logical order. The roof has three layers: a liner (which you see, in one photo, from inside), the insulation, and the exterior roof material. One photo shows the roof at the point of having the insulation mostly installed. Another photo shows the crew carrying the roof material to the yurt. You can see that it's weighing them down just carrying it on level ground - then we got to heave it up onto the roof! One photo shows roof on, but no center dome yet, as Ben's still sticking out the top. And a picture of the yurt with windows preliminarily installed.

The photo of the truck full of tree limbs represents my recent realization that farming in this area includes a fair amount of woodlot management. This has not been a very big part of any of my previous farm experience, so we have a lot to learn. MOFGA (Maine Organic Farm and Garden Assocation) has some great resources for low-impact forest management, and we intend to make use of them. And yes, I know that you're supposed to do most of your forestry in the cold months, so that you don't have to haul around the leaves along with the woody parts (as the last picture shows). These trees had to get cleared out for the one area on our place where there will be above-ground power lines.

Tomorrow we're starting to frame up the mudroom, so I should probably head toward bed pretty soon. Have a good Labor Day weekend!