Much gnashing of teeth

We've begun the cutting but my example blog glossed over much. Unhelpful!!

For our 5' high walls the longest slats are 6'6". We set back 2 1/2" then drilled holes every 9" this info was missing from the other blog.

 The woodpile

 sorted

 drew a rectangle on the ground as a template for the wall unit (Khana)

 cutting to length

 drilling holes

 laying the slats together

 hammering the nails flat

after the panel was assembled, the hammered in nails loosened, but still acted as a hinge, We see now how Rope is better suited to this job. as we were expanding and contracting the panel, two of the strips broke.

the panel also did NOT end up to the dimensions that my example blog said they would be, leading to Anger and Frustration!

at that point it was time to walk away.

Will attempt again at a later date.

We've got Wood!

So Much Wood!

90 1x2 furring strips & 30 2x2 furring strips, The workers at Lowes looked at me like I had a second head because they had to get the forklift and open another pallet, Bonus points to those guys for making sure the bundles we loaded were straight and not hockey sticks!
if you're going to build one yourself I would recommend getting all the wood at one time as at Lowes there was a discount when you bought in bulk, it may only be 10¢ but when you're on a budget every bit helps.  

Also visited a family friend today who is a Master Upholsterer who's offered to run all the seams of our canvas because he's got no jobs lined up this winter. I will need to find something excellent to give him in thanks. I was worried that my other Seamstress wouldn't have room to sew the hem runs. the outer skin is 36' might be hard to do in an apartment, but we'll see.

the yurt calculator does everything in metric so there's a lot of conversion involved, gladly they have a converter on the page so not a lot of back and forth. Here is the picture of the yurt the site generates. I am going between what's available on the calculator site Here and the helpful but not in-depth blog of TheDelmerYurt many interlinked yurt websites aren't active anymore so I'm hoping our experiences highlight how to do things. 

while not an exact picture of how the roof will look this shows the way in which the Canvas will be cut to make a circle. the numbers right now are slightly off as they don't have the seam allowance added in and the overhang.

On this Black Friday we also picked up a paint sprayer to make the painting of all the wall slats, roof poles and the ring a lot easier. 

As it stands we have all the materials necessary to build this Yurt,

now we begin assembly. 

As we're building a yurt now we have backed away from the Teardrop project for now, leaving it as a flat utility trailer that can either haul the Yurt or we put the yurt on top of the car. 

If ya like it then ya better put a ring on it

 Begun some of the woodwork, Two doughnuts cut out of plywood scrap. 3' in diameter, 2' inner diameter

 The Inner circles will probably be repurposed as bases for an armor stand or a small table.

Next step... Math and paint 

I have a big package

It's begun, no going back now!

Ordered some factory second canvas from This lovely place in a very nice 67" wide 12 oz canvas
the extra width will be nice for seam allowance and roof overhang.

here's a little sketchup showing the measurements.

found a 5 gallon bucket of outdoor housepaint for very reasonable in a steel blue color so going to paint all the wood blue to protect it.

In The Begining

I've just returned from a lovely event called Wasteland Weekend. Check it out here

If you love Post Apocalyptic stuff, awesome cars and camping, go. put it on your calendar and go.

"oh so its like Burning Man"... Yes... and No.
Burning Man has no real theme to it, it's just an amalgamation of interesting artsy stuff in the middle of nowhere with a big-ass bonfire as the main event (If i'm wrong correct me, I've never been, Too poor)

Wasteland is themed, Think Mad Max meets Ren Faire... but everyone is dressed up and riding on the back of a modified car.

Both are in the middle of nowhere, in the desert at the end of Summertime. Both are a showcase of creativity and artistry. Both have a very tribal culture to them.


It was fun, It was hot and even though I am a desert rat I've never drank so much water before.

It was also hard for me to have fun, the weekend before I had volunteered to help and during so my car was stolen, major bummer, but It was found while I was at wasteland so happy-ish ending. ($500 later)


We have this awesome tent. likely from the 70's. made of oiled canvas. It smells like crayons.

Here it is being setup in my living room.

It did the job at Wasteland, being walls for an air mattress and stuff, but during the day it was just much too hot, we spent most of the time under friends shade. For all we brought we weren't comfortable in the tent, I can imagine with the kids it would be even harder. Nope it just wont do.
The canvas wasn't retreated during its lifetime so is dry rotting, the poles are showing their age (one broke at wasteland... Duct Tape, Bailing wire and Rebar to the rescue!)

So, Post-Wasteland my noodle starts to simmer. This is always a Dangerous thing and leads to...Ideas. Hence the name of this blog. I earned my Wasteland Name of Muse and those who know me think it's fitting. I'm always having ideas.


So, with the trailer's base done Read all about it here We need something larger, and more interesting and Post Apocalyptic.

I began research, Oh Google how I love Thee.

Has to be mobile and easy to set up with two people
has to be light enough for my car's towing capacity
has to be interesting
large enough for a queen size mattress
tall enough for husband to stand in
stand up to high winds

All these criteria have lead me to a Yurt.

Some discussion with Hubby and we've settled upon 12' with 5' walls and peaking at 7' inside.


Then comes... MATH

as a teen I didn't like this kind of math at all... maybe if they'd rebranded it so I could figure out how to make thinks with math I would have done way better. and given me Sketchup to visualize what the numbers mean.

Sorry Sidetrack there.

So math. Hello Pi.

mmm Pie.

and numbers.

I had to figure out how many roof poles we could use without making a lot of weight.

thankfully before my brain completely fried in my head like bacon...

My Savior!

how many poles, how many boards needed for the lattice and how far to drill the pivot-holes and how to cut the canvas for the top.
We're going with Pie Wedges instead of strips.