Yes folks, I was able to spend this past year traveling the country talking with all of YOU about yurts because I have SPONSORS. These are visionary companies who agreed that it was in everyone’s best interests for me to pursue spreading the news and answering your questions about this affordable, accessible, aesthetic and amazing shelter we call the Yurt.

    I went to these companies for sponsorships after my book came out because I knew them and respected their products and business practices. (I’ve owned yurts from two of the companies.)  And now I’d like to express my heartfelt gratitude to my tour sponsors (drum roll, please):  Colorado Yurt Company, Rainier Yurts and Pacific Yurts. Without them it wouldn’t have been remotely possible to do what I did this past year!

    All three companies have also participated as sponsors for my yurtinfo.org website, along with GoYurt Shelters. This has enabled me to completely update and redesign the website, making it easier to navigate and adding information that is useful to everyone. For example, I’ve added a couple of excerpts from my book on "How to Buy a Yurt" and "Building Codes", plus new pages on Yurt Workshops, Yurt Financing and Yurt Consulting. Coming soon, to a laptop near you…(hopefully by March at the latest)!

Winter Yurt Musing...

Snow is falling, and falling… and falling… here in the mountains of north Idaho. It’s a great time to think, to write, to reflect on what has transpired this past year.

It’s been over a year since my first blog entry.  A year of traveling the country and sharing my slideshow, “YURTS: Big Life, small footprint,” with readers, builders and yurt enthusiasts from Portland, Oregon to Portland, Maine.

In these next blogs I’ll look back at some of the questions you asked me while I was out on the road, and some that have come through on my yurt website and forum.

I’d also like to share some of the new yurt resources I’ve found while updating the website. Like, for example, this YouTube yurt video of a multiplex yurt in the UK all decked out Krygyz-style for a party! And these fun scenes from Simply Yurts, an event rental company in Devon, UK.

Thank you for joining me on my yurt blog, and please do continue to leave your comments and questions. I’ll do my best to answer what I can and find other experts to contribute as well…

More highlights from my East Coast tour…

When I spoke at Yestermorrow Design Build School in Warren, Vermont, a lovely woman named Renee came up after my talk and told me about seeing some unique yurts in Budapest. For those of you who don’t know, in Hungary yurts are considered a part of their heritage. The yurts (or yurt-inspired buildings) Renee had seen were in a kind of museum park.
I asked Renee to email photos, and here’s what she said:

I found this yurt about 30 minutes outside of Budapest, in a semi-rural neighborhood just outside the Socialist Monument Park. Rather than destroying the statues that commemorated their changing history after the war, the Hungarians raised enough money to collect and transport all the monuments from Budapest (get them out of mind of the population) and re-established them in a large walled park.

In this photo, I’m inside the wall that surrounds the park.

Just arrived back from my East Coast tour, and what a great tour it was!  I love meeting yurt people and hearing their dreams and their stories. Here are some highlights from the tour…

My first stop was Northshire Books in Manchester Center, Vermont, voted 2006 best independent bookstore by Publisher’s Weekly. They deserve the title! An old Victorian house full of books and meeting spaces with an adjoining café, it’s at the heart of the cultural life in this southwestern Vermont town.

Stanley's Tapered-Wall Yurts

Stanley McGaughey was at my Northshire talk. He’s still finishing up the final details on an amazing set of tapered wall yurts. Look for his story in our upcoming “Yurtspeak” newsletter!