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Cool Outside, Toasty Inside

Submitted entry: Okay, that’s not an advertising slogan for some hip new dessert, and no, we didn’t install the woodstove yet either. The yurt warms up significantly throughout the day peaking at about 70 degrees (it’s about 58 outside). Mornings are still cool - in the low 30’s but the yurt was about 50 this morning. We were quite comfortable all bundled up for the night and as we made coffee and pancakes to start the day the gas stove began to warm the yurt.

But, fear not, the stove is coming. I have to black it (paint it) and we now have all we need for the chimney so it’s just a matter of a few days. Quay, who helped with the deck will be helping us install the chimney. Here’s the story - we finally called Pacific Yurts and asked them if we really had to use the metalbestos pipe for the chimney. They said that it wouldn’t be a big deal to use it only to go through the fabric wall and that single-insulated pipe would be okay for the remainder. Well, this cut our costs tremendously. We took back one of our 3 foot sections of metalbestos (saving the other for the wall penetration) and received a $75 credit. Then we bought all we needed of the single-walled pipe plus a stoveboard to set the stove on plus stove black. Basically everything we needed. For that we only had to pay $5 over the $75 credit. So needless to say we’re thrilled at that. We’ll be installing it this weekend or shortly thereafter.

Meanwhile the leaves are dropping rapidly - we’re almost able to see the mountain again through the trees - a big part of why we chose this site for the yurt. Hopefully I’ll get a picture before all the leaves are gone - it’s quite something. Still not much in the way of rain, though. We’ve had about 2 inches in three months - if that.

Paul is doing wonderfully - he’s making up his own signs now so his “vocabulary” is growing quite rapidly. I’d say about 20 words now. This is very helpful in both figuring out what he needs and seeing what he’s thinking. A few mornings ago he woke up, turned to Sage and did his sign for thirsty/water then his nursing signal. In other words: “I’m thirsty, I need a nurse.” I highly recommend signing with your babies - it’s such a help for us and so interesting.

We had an interesting time with our friend in town whose daughter is slightly older than Paul. (Forgive me, I haven’t asked her if mentioning her name is okay or should I paraphrase or what). So anyway Sage and I were talking with her about how I really want to live in a community and while Sage is interested she doesn’t feel as driven as I do. She said that her and her husband are in the same situation. The interesting thing about it is that she is the one who wants to live with other parents and her husband is cool to the idea. It’s interesting because both he and Sage are the working parents while she and I are the primary caretakers of the babies. So she and I are saying we need help getting through the day and doing what we want for ourselves on top of the cooking, cleaning and caretaking.

So the interesting thing is that we started to talk about doing some community-type activities without having land yet. Working together in a cottage industry, sharing meals (and even making extra to get through the week). It sounds like a big help to us and other parents we know. Then we talked about the long term - that we all want to be in something of a child-centered community with a community school or other significant educational resources. She’d been talking with someone in town here (on the other side of town) who has about 700 acres and she’s interested in having a community there (her husband is cool on the idea still). So needless to say things are developing on a lot of fronts.

It’s also interesting to see how many of my readers are giving some thought to simplifying their lives either through homesteading or moving to/establishing a community. I’d say there are at least two of each that I’ve heard of who are actively pursuing a life change with others talking about their dreams and potentially fulfilling them later in life and still others staying where they are and simplifying their lives either through reduced commercialization, cutting down hours or even as one person did where I used to work deciding to retire when I told her I resigned (and why) and following through in only a month or two.

So at least in the interpersonal sense…

Paul’s Sign Language