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White Mountain Yurts

K

Karl

New member
Hi all,

My wife Jenny and I built a 30 foot White Mountain Yurt in Glover, Vermont.
The experience was excellent. They gave great service, and the yurt seems rock solid. They delivered early and erected it in two and half days, the insulated platform took about 5 days to build. We lived through a storm with 60 mile gusts, not long after it was put up. We have a fully insulated platform, 24 volt off-grid power, and now a 142 ft deep well. We will be heating with wood and have a stove designed to heat 700-1000 sq ft, that also bakes and cooks. So far we love living in the yurt, and many people have come to see it. I will post some pictures eventually, and we are chronicling the experience in a blog at
littleyurtontheborderlands | Homesteading permaculture microfarming site There are pictures there of everything we have done from start to finish, so far. I still need to install sink and shower drains and get running water in pipes, instead of a hose. Eventually we plan to make our living as small farmers from this place.
 
Karl, thanks for joining and welcome!

I am currently at my yurt camp up in the Adirondacks for the weekend and am browsing on what is like dialup speeds (weak 3G signal), so I have disabled images. Can't wait to see what you add. Check out the albums when you get some free time. After you add some pics there, you can use them to create a "My Yurt" entry.

Can you tell me how good the well works? I am thinking up ideas for something similar up here at camp.
 
Well

The well works great. We got a slow start pump since we're off-grid, it hardly draws any power off the batteries when it runs. The only downside to the well was the $5800 cost (the pump was 1200 of the cost), but having a good water source is really nice. We hauled water for several months, and it gets old real fast. The pump is 130 feet down the hole and the then there is 100 foot run to the pressure tank. This seems to hardly give it a work out. Our water well level comes up to within 10 feet of the well head, so it's not free flowing, but it recharges at 20 gallons a minute.
 
Do you happen to have the make/model of the pump? That might be something I might be interested in, as we use solar at our yurt too.
 
Pump

Gundfos SQ soft-starting 0.5 horsepower, and runs on a 115 Volt 20 amp circuit.
We run a 24 volt solar system and the pump hardly makes a blip on the battery charge monitor when it runs.
 
White Mountain Yurts are great, I think the owner's name is Paul? They work with Colorado to supply some of the components, a good partnership as I hear WMY's woodworking is really good. Looking forward to checking out pics of your yurt, Karl!
 
We had a great experience with WMY, and I highly recommend them to anyone interested in buying a yurt.
 
Essex County Vermont Yurt

Karl,

My wife and I are using WMY to construct a 24ft Yurt in Essex County. Would love to come by and visit your location.

So far we have the platform up and I have attempted to attach a picture.

The property was logged a few years back and has a 5 acre landing with no trees that I hope someday can be used for farming.


Peter Markalunas
 

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Hi Peter,

My wife and I would love for you to stop by. I am off work on Mondays and Tuesdays. My number is 802-323-6141. Give us a shout and will see what we can arrange. I highly recommend extra insulation before you do anything else once the canvas is up. The insulation package is not adequate and it gets quite cold in out 30 foot yurt. Other than that we are very happy living in the yurt. Then again we probably should have bought a stove that heats twice the area of the yurt. Our heats 700 to 900 sq ft and really struggles.

Karl
 
Karl,

The next time my wife and I are coming up from N.J. I will give you a shout.


Thanks for the info on the stove because I am looking for a used one now. Would also really like to see what you did with the insulation.


Peter
 
We wrapped the interior in 4 mil plastic this helped a little, but it's still cold. So I ordered 23 48"x75" denim hot water heater blankets which I will put up around the walls. Next year we will order more insulation also denim and do the roof. Today I am hunting down air leaks in the platform with a caulking gun. There is a gap around the bend board that is letting a lot of draft into the yurt. We bought the full insulation package, make sure you get extra insulation though before you put everything else into the yurt. Next year I also will get storm doors. The doors that come with the yurt are nice but they are very cold to the touch.
 
Karl,

If you are around this coming weekend i would love to come visit you and see your yurt.
No pressure I just have 4 days off, need to finish stacking a cord of wood on friday and then I am free for the weekend.

Would love to see what you have done and share yurt living experiences

Corina
 
Karl
How was your winter in the yurt?
This was a cold winter
I would love to visit some time, I am going to be building a permanent yurt home starting this spring and very excited to have well insulated walls
Corina
 
Hi Corina,

Winter went okay, we had a few rough days. Gone through four cords of wood so far. Next winter will be better. I sent you a email with my phone number so we can arrange a visit to each others places.

Karl
 
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