The “Questions” post made me realize that I didn’t have an FAQ or even a decent bio up. Remembering that there was an archived version of our old FAQ, and knowing that people had lots of questions about or former lives in a yurt in the woods (hard to believe that less than three years after leaving the yurt we moved to an apartment several hundred feet off the ground in a highrise. Our apartment complex could comfortably fit 1/3 of our entire town that we used to live in and our neighbourhood has nearly three times as many people living in it as our entire county did. More people live in the greater Toronto area than Missouri. Anyway – here is our old yurt FAQ (new FAQ coming soon, I promise) with minor edits to bring things up to date. I also realize that I should do more of a follow-up yurt FAQ (lessons learned, that sort of thing) one of these days.

Should you be interested in reading about our time in the yurt, check out the archives starting in March of 1999. We stayed there until March of 2001.

Where did you live?

We lived in a yurt in the Ozark mountains about 25 minutes from the nearest town, store or restaurant. Those of you that know us can imagine how hard it was for us not to live near any restaurants.

What’s a yurt?

A traditionally round portable building that many nomadic Mongolians use for shelter.

No really, what’s a yurt?

Our yurt was a 20 foot diameter round insulated house. The walls were a lattice (much like the old wooden baby gates). In the center where the Mongolians would have a smoke hole, we had a 5 foot diameter skylight that opened to let out the hot air and any bugs that found their way inside. Click on the photo of the interior to see a bigger photo of the exterior. You can also see a composite 360 degree view of the inside of the yurt.

Why didn’t you just build a house like everyone else?

Good question. We had several constraints on our choice of home. First, we wanted something that we could buy outright. Second, since we planned on building about 500 feet into the woods, we wanted something that we didn’t have to clear a road and a large lot to build. We wanted a structure that blended with the environment. Originally before we moved here we were on about strawbale however when we found our site we realized that we’d have to carry bales one by one and even if we built a tiny house that’d be either a whole lot of bales to carry or would require us to cut down a bunch of trees to make a road. We were able to carry the pieces of the yurt one by one over the course of a day out to the site. We didn’t need to cut down any trees larger than 3-4 inches in diameter and the entire “lot” we cleared was only 30 feet in diameter. No concrete was poured (we used footing blocks). Another advangage, is that the whole thing is portable. In a few days it could all be in the back of a truck. After building a deck somewhere else we could have it back up in a couple of days.

Did you make your yurt yourself?
Well, we put it up ourselves with help from friends, but we didn’t make it from scratch – we bought a kit from a yurt company.

I bet that cost a lot.
Depends on what you mean by a lot, I guess. All told, deck and yurt combined we probably spent in the neighborhood of $10,000 or about $32/square foot.

Do you know where I can find a used yurt?

Unfortunately, I don’t. We used to maintain a Used Yurts Classifieds but have since quit maintaining it. Sorry!

Why did you pick the yurt company you did?
We were lucky — we knew people who had just done all the research necessary to buy a yurt, and were able to use the work they’d already put into it to make our decision. If you’d like more information on our decision, feel free to write and ask. There are other yurt companies out there too, which we knew nothing about at the time. You can find out more about yurts in general, and companies that make them, as well as books on how to make your own yurt on the excellent Digital Librarian yurt and tipi resources page.

What if I just want to make my own yurt?

There’s a book out called “Build a yurt; the low cost Mongolian round house” by Len Charney. It’s out of print now, but we were able to get a copy via interlibrary loan, so I’d definitely talk to your librarian about it.

Fabric walls! Were’t you cold?
We never were. We had a wood stove that so far that kept the yurt at about 55-60°F at the coldest on a -20°F degree night (the coldest we’ve experienced). Stoke the stove up and it can be above 90. Often we sleep with the door open!

Did you have electricity?
We never did. Our regular battery charger, laptop battery charger, and washer/dryer were in the house on the land. We were a bit deep in the woods to get a lot out of solar (or wind for that matter).

How about running water?
Nope – we had walking water. That’s where I would fill up two 7 gallon water jugs at the house and walk out here with them. Eventually we found a spring a little closer to the yurt. In the summer we tried collecting rainwater for washing which worked pretty well. As for washing dishes, we had a sink that drained down the hill behind the yurt. The jugs had a valve on the bottom so that it worked like a cold water faucet. We heated up water on the stove for hot water. As for showering, in the winter we did it at the house (or had sponge baths in the yurt). In the summer we’d take them outside using a solar shower. The view then sure beats any shower curtain I’ve seen.

How did you cook?
Very well, thanks.

No, I mean do you have a kitchen?
As a matter of fact we had a really great kitchen. We traded web design for it. It had a four burner propane cooktop (we carried 20 lb propane canisters out – about 1 a month at $8 each), 6′ of counter space and the two basin sink all with cabinets underneath. Without a doubt it beat any kitchen we’ve ever had. And it also beat cooking outside which is what we usually did before we got the kitchen. Cooking on a fire is something I enjoy once in a while and was really glad to know how to do but it’s nice to have an easy option.

Erm…How about a bathroom?
As far as peeing is concerned we just did it away from the yurt. Pooping is a little more complicated but not a big headache. We had a 5 gallon bucket with a toilet seat on it. Every time we used it we’d put leaves/dirt on top which kept it from smelling. When full we’d empty it a ways away from the yurt where we composted it – it composts quite nicely and has no smell at all.

Did you miss living in a real house?

Not at all – seriously. It was such a lovely space and it had everything we need in it (except the washer/dryer). When we lived in real houses we very often had most of our furniture in one room anyway. Our first real apartment together was a studio apartment of about 400 sq ft. After we lived there we always missed that so even in Bethlehem we at one point had made our living room into that apartment – bed, computer, TV, everything but the kitchen and bathroom all in one room. We loved it!

Yeah, but didn’t you need your personal space? Wasn’t it hard living in such a small place?
Not at all. However, if we were in the city I think I would. It really helped to have been on 40 acres (and surrounded by even more unpopulated land). Unless it was terribly inclement our house was not 314 square feet – it’s several million. We didn’t spend every waking hour inside the yurt. In the summer it was too hot to stay inside during the day so we’d be outside. In the winter we’d have to go get wood every few days until we get a good size pile.

You keep saying “the baby” – what’s his name?

Well, I’m afraid we don’t want to tell you. Call us weird but it seems like a pretty private thing. I plan to call him “Paul” (coffee shakes fans may remember why) but for now it’s working fine the way it is. Other information I can tell you is that he was born in August of 1998 and is absolutely the joy of our lives.

Where are the pictures of you?
They’re in an album in the bookshelf. Seriously, though – Sage has no plans to put her picture on the web any time in the future. I may someday but am still a bit shy right now.

What was your yurt living situation? I’m still confused.
There are 40 acres of forest. There’s a big conventional house where friends of ours live. About 500 feet east of the house, way off in the woods, across a ravine is the yurt where we live. Kite has a tipi about 100 feet from the yurt.

What did you do for money?
We did web design, Todd occcasionally fixes computers, and he also had a job doing document prep work for the company he worked for before the baby was born. It was 100% at-home work and all done through FedEx and email. We give $22 a month to Childreach (non-religious charity). The rest went for food. We bought a lot of bulk food and there was a great grocery salvage store in town so our money goes a long way. We have no worries about going hungry. We toyed with other ideas as well – the main goal was for us to be self supporting while still be able to spend nearly 100% of our time with the baby.

We’ve had a lot of luck doing barter, as well — I think my favorite barter item is fresh fish!

Did you miss living in the city?

Not really. We missed some of the conveniences – delivered food probably top on the list. Sometimes it felt a bit insular seeing the same people for days on end. In the city you see lots of different people whether you like it or not. We didn’t miss hearing our neighbor beating his children, sirens, car alarms, barking dogs, crime, people coming up to us with unsolicited baby advice, traffic, money worries.

How are the cats doing?
Well, there have been some ups and downs there. Two cats, Jay and Cilantro died of cytauxzoonosis back in June of 1999. Karma also was infected but seems to be doing better after lots of wet food and herbal remedies. He’s gone from being barely able to walk to running out to the house to meet us when we’re late with the food! The other cats have really taken to being outdoors. Claire, formerly the scrawniest, gristliest cat alive gained a bunch of weight and ran around the forest despite her handicap. Anita got bitten by a poisonous snake but didn’t seem to notice that her face swelled up like a balloon. She’s fine now, though. Habanero and Harriet slowly but surely learned to climb trees and Shelly, who had tried daily to get outside when we lived in the city was blissfully happy. She spent her days outside in the woods and still sleept with us at night.

Is there a name for the kind of parenting you practice?
Yes. It’s called Attachment Parenting and is talked about a gread deal in The Baby Book by Dr. William Sears and Martha Sears.

How did you find out about it?
When we decided to try to conceive we got a book from the library (also by Dr. Sears) called 300 questions new parents ask. We would randomly choose a question and then read the question and answer out loud to each other. It had never occured to us to sleep with the Hypothetical Child until we read about it in this book. It seemed obvious, right and true just like so many of the other ideas presented by Dr. Sears. As we read more we became more and more convinced that the positive, non-violent, attachment style of parenting was what we wanted to practice.

What does it entail, exactly?
We tried to provide our baby with a sense of self confidence, security and independence by always being available when he needed us. Sage breastfed on demand, we slept with the baby in our bed (soon we’ll put up our list of what an attachment parent needs to buy before their baby is born — instead of the $5,000 most of the books we looked at deemed necessary we spent about $150 total), we carried him around in a sling all the time. If you want to know more about slings, look at the Nojo babysling site. find them for under $20 on Ebay. It’s also about responding to your baby’s cues. Not responding as in “the baby’s crying in the other room, better let him cry it out” but to actually pick up the baby and provide what he needs. You can also find more information at Attachment Parenting International.