A Yurt?

I have this dream.

In my dream, Chris and I buy 5-10 acres of land not too far from where we live now in the Sierra foothills (just one climate zone away from where we are now), farm what we need to eat (but live close enough to society to run to the store real quick), and live in a yurt.

"What in the hell is a yurt?" Chris said the first time I let him in on "our" plan. "It's not a teepee or a tent, right?"

Nope. It was only after watching the Amercian show, Last One Standing, where 6 men are tasked to learn and fight in local tournaments around the world, where he got a real good idea of what a yurt is (they went to Mongolia). But the one on the show didn't do much to advance my cause.

The yurt I could imagine living in has a 30' diameter, and is 13' high in the center, with 7' walls. The one on the show had 4' walls -- not easy trying to sell that to someone who's 6'1". But yurts are really quick to set up (see picture), leave a minimal footprint on the earth, and are all about simplicity. With appropriate insulation, they can be warm in the winter and cool in the summer. There are all kinds of options and ways to "pimp" out a yurt.

Whether or not we end up living in a yurt (possible new interest is post-and-beam home, just because it's NOT a yurt), is anyone's guess. But the point is to be more self-sufficient, self-sustaining, and live a simpler life.



















Anyway, it's fun to dream and imagine this as productive land with a simple little house yurt on it.

Check out more cool yurt pictures at Yurts.com.