Thursday, November 14, 2013

Dry Floor Means Time To Bring In A Loom

First, a little dose of beauty from Cloud Nine. This is a time lapse movie of the clouds across the valley as their image passes through the skylight to be projected upside down onto the wall. It's sped up 24x to make it more obvious, but it's just as mesmerizing in person. Oh, yeah, and in real life, this effect spans all 360 degrees of the yurt interior. I just don't have a way to photograph that. Yet.

After my morning meditation, this was another day of hurrying to beat the weather. It's supposed to rain this afternoon and I really needed to get caulk down and cured before that happened. Otherwise, I'd be waiting for another two days in a row with no rain to dry the deck out again.

Remember that my deck slopes eight inches from the back to the front? This was done by design so that I can use it as a catchment surface, directing all of the water into a gutter and funneling it into a holding tank. That's later, by the way. Right now I'm just working on having a dry place to live and work.

To keep the water from running under the yurts, I planned to install flexible wooden curbs and caulk under them.

It's pretty simple, really. I screw blocks into the deck and then screw wooden strips into the blocks.

Like any project, it really pays to think it all the way through before beginning. See how little space there is between the two yurts? I didn't think about how I would attach the curb in that space. (Try to ignore that the curb and caulk are already down. I didn't take a 'before' picture.)

So I ended up using a spare block to hold the curb in place and lifting the skirt on the other yurt so I could screw it into place from inside of there. If I had it to do over, I'd attach the curb to the block first, slide it between the two yurts and then screw down the block. But, remember, I have weather looming. I just did whatever I thought would be fastest.

After the curb was down I applied the caulk. When it's dry, I'll pull down the canvas, making sure that both the Tyvek and the canvas are on the outside of the curb. When it rains this afternoon we'll see whether it works. Fingers crossed!

And now I'm going to get the parts for one of my loom frames. It will really help me decide how the space is to be laid out if I can see and feel the size of one of those beasts in here. I know it's going to be tight!

I got the yurt parts home and decided to unload them all against the wall to conserve heat in the yurt. (The warmer I can keep it, the quicker and better the caulk will cure.) Thirty seconds after I snapped this shot it started sprinkling. I RAN those parts inside and zipped around the outside of the yurt pulling the cover down so the rain would drip outside of the new curb.

Here's how I keep myself from laying in bed until the loom is done. These are the last parts that will go on the loom. I can't lay down and stare at the ceiling until the loom is built.

Well, here's what I came up with. I can watch the fire from bed, morning light illuminates the loom, and I can access every part of it that I need to.


The loom BARELY fits in here. There definitely is not room for two looms because I need to leave clearance around the stove. It's fine since I really only need two looms in operation during the summer months anyhow. When the time comes I'll set up the second loom under a canopy on the deck. Until then, I can weave perfectly fine on one loom in here.

And now it's time to eat dinner and look at the ceiling for a little while before bed. G'nite!

2 comments:

the Mighty M said...

I love reading your blog. I lived in Ashland for 17 years. I have pictures of 2 ft. of snow on my deck. I hope the caukled strips can hold the line. I got a kick out of seeing the pieces of your loom on the side of the yurt before you put the loom together. I just did that with my 60" PDL! Nobody but a weaver can appreciate having a loom in their living space, in fact I have two! Rocks.

BloggerPlus App said...

You're right. Snow is a real worry here. And no, that old tiny curb would not have held it. The new one should, though. If it doesn't work perfectly, it's no big deal to get out there and shovel every day. I had to do that the even get into my studio in the mountains last year.