Homestead Progress

The race is on! Our weather has begun to turn. We had enough rain to make it real in the minds of everyone around here, but now it's warm enough for us to do the Winter prep that we need to do.

Almost every night is clear and icy cold, resulting in real frost on the ground in the morning.

My new yurt covers are on the truck from Montréal, making their way here. This is the pallet that will arrive any day now. In the meantime, I'm still weatherproofing the yurt parts in between my weaving tasks.

Each roof pole needs separate attention. I am weatherproofing the ends. The top end that inserts into the roof ring is being treated with teak oil because a layer of paint might prevent them from inserting correctly and cause them to get stuck when it's time to remove them.

The bottom end was sawn off and left unpainted, which is a vector for moisture-based damage in my opinion.

The horse hair ties have weakened from their time in storage and need to be replaced. Until I can get ahold of enough horse hair to do it correctly, I'll be using my own handmade cotton cordage. It's a shame to lose this visceral connection to the horses that are so integral to Mongolian culture and identity, but it would be more of a shame to lose parts of the yurt because the roof collapsed as the result of weak roof ties.

Once the ties are removed, each pole is getting two layers of paint on the end.

Here are half of the poles, laid out for painting. I thought that they were particularly beautiful all together like this.

See the loom against the wall? That's the one that the apprentice in Portland had been weaving on. I'll soon have one of these 60" AVL looms for sale.

And then there's the door and roof ring. There are parts that will be ruthlessly exposed to the sun. I am coating all of those parts with a layer of oil-based, UV protective Varathane. It really gleams now and should retain its vibrance for many more years thanks to this coating.

"Better to arrive late and ready, than early and unprepared." -POB Bismark

I'm actually glad for the extra time before the covers arrive. It's encouraging me to do the weatherproofing that I might have skipped otherwise.

Some of the joints on the roof ring have shrunk since it was made. I'm filling those cracks with Bondo, sanding them down and painting them before the ring gets a layer of Varathane. This will prevent any moisture that gets on the ring from penetrating and eating away at the wood.

Soon, however, all of this preparation will pay off when I get to live in this gorgeous space with far fewer worries about damage to the wooden parts from this climate's moisture.