To get an idea of how it really should be done, have a peek at this video of yurt building.

What seems like an age ago now, I started looking for yurts as an option for this Glamping Project, only to find they were horribly expensive if bought in Europe. I had thought of going to Mongolia and received a UNICEF job offer to work there, but for various reasons this didn’t evolve further. Then I found a yurt on ebay and popped up to Galicia to buy one second hand, see blog:

http://farm-finn.com/2014/04/23/blog-4-may-2013-ideas-and-inspiration/

And from that point it’s sat in a cupboard at my house waiting to see the light of day as I used the Bell Tents, preferring their ease of putting up/down and mobility.

Days out with Volunteers…great hair!

And then came volunteers and I both needed another tent and had the people power to give the yurt a try.

Unfortunately for Sanaa and Josh, they arrived in Moroc just as I did and things up in Loubar were pretty basic to say the least.

Living up there on my own, you just get used to it, and of course my personal living arrangements were relatively fine, but for anyone else…from the “real world”, perhaps that offered another perspective.

Sanaa Making Moqdar Mixture for the yurt base.

As such and with a flow of apologies, Sanaa and Josh’s task was to set up camp so that it would be more comfortable for other volunteers, which included putting up the yurt.

Of course this being the age of the internet, we were able to find videos showing us what we needed to do…how much easier could it get!!!!!

How different real life to the virtual one…..but we, and I should say, mostly they, managed it.

Putting up the frame.

Even getting to the point of putting up the frame required days of repairing the original animal skin ties with new rope ties and then hours of fidgeting round trying to get the thing symmetrical…..

And linking this to the door…which, once on, looked wonderful.

Our Beautiful Yurt Door.

 

 

Next steps included adding the crown and the various woolen and impermeable skins. I am sure that if you’ve put a yurt up from the moment you can walk…or at least several times, if you’ve a few of them (ala glamping project!) then the whole process is easy as pie…

Adding skins.

 

But it seemed very challenging to me…a lot of learning here. And I can only say thank you to the Yurt Team, for doing such a good job.

 

 

 

 

What does this mean for the glamping side of Farm Finn?

Well, essentially, I think that I’ll be looking at re designing the yurts and having them made locally, pinching ideas from other similar project, Yurts Tarifa comes to mind and is highly recommended:

http://www.yurtstarifa.com/Suerte_Tierra_Yurt_Experience

As well as investigating Moroccan Hymers, local tents used for festivals, weddings and the like…still lots of work to be done, but as a first step, so far so good….

Our First Yurt on Farm Finn.