Back with a separate and probably last blog till this summer....to speak more on Ole man winter not leaving Southwest Va as of yet.

  Southwest Va has been dumped on by ole man winter once again with his wrath of unmerciful cold and snow. Well, perhaps the cold wasn't as much as in the past 3 or 5 weeks (in the negative digits) but it got in the teens again with arctic cold blast of winds with record snow falls for many areas in the southern states of Southeastern U.S.
 
   Parts of southern Texas, Louisiana, Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina was dealing with unusual weather conditions with some areas  not equipped to deal with.  Atlanta was one of the most hardest hit areas with no idea how to handle such cold and icy snow conditions.  Even though Blue Ridge Mountains in our location has known what snow and ice can dish out, the conditions became a challenge for us as well with the last storm that hit this area recently.

   With snow fall measuring from 18" to 25" in Carroll and Floyd county along with many other counties,  people were having to deal with life threatening decisions of trying to get to work or just becoming a hermit for a few days till road conditions were safe to continue on.  Many businesses closed due to the weather conditions and of course a lot of employees deciding that it is just too dangerous to hit the roads that V-Dot hadn't even touched yet.  The first 24 hrs of the storm it was all V-Dot could do to "try" to keep the interstates passable.  Main roads were beginning to get to cleared off within 72 hrs of the storm starting.

   With our road on the third and last list of roads to be cleared (dirt road) we had a local farmer come down with his truck and blade and cleared off a single route.  However, our drive is long and downhill so we stayed put for the entirety of the storm and then some.  Fortunately for us Steve and I didn't have a need to run to the store for "milk and bread" like every else seem to have.  We keep a stock of groceries for just mishaps and with wood/coal heat we have no fear of electricity turning off as well.  We have food, stored water and shelter along with our solar panels for back up power when needed, from any storms, hardships that may come through.

   However, with snow predicted of 20"+ I decided that our yurt experiment was at risk of life threatening to me..... Yes, I became chicken......of  the significant snowfall amount and what it might do to our yurt roof. I fled to the safety of our house knowing that the chances of the house roof was much better than the yurts.   Sorry, safety is one of my main concerns and this was a concern to me.

   Turned out that many roof structures, personal and businesses was reported through out many surrounding counties had collapsed over the weight of the snow loads.  Some were older buildings some were only 10-12 years old is all.  BUT, to my surprise the our yurt of 6+ years still stands today with no harm to the roof from a 20" snowfall that sit on it for about a week before the rains came and melted all the snow off.

   I figure with a a little research on snow fall weight per inch, there was approximately over a half ton of snow on this 20ft yurt roof. 
 Calculation: S x 1.25 = P where: S = Inches of snow on the roof (depth) 1.25 = Weight of 1 sq ft of snow for each 1-inch of depth P = Pounds per square foot (lbs/sq ft)
   Example: If the snow on my roof is 20-inches deep, what would that equate to?
20-inch roof snow depth x 1.25 lbs/sq ft = 25 lbs per sq ft of roof snow loadThat's amazing for a home structure for temporary living quarters.... to me perhaps permanent living quarters in the future and maybe sell my house and get out of debt.  I'll keep my land to enjoy. 
-----got this information from website: 
                  http://building.cdaid.org/images/Handouts/Shovel%20Roof%20Snow.pdf

   I am "VERY" impressed with our yurt.  With only a 20 degree slope our yurt roof has overcame 6 winters of average snow, ice, high winds and now this year with the most heaviest snow and ice load on record for over 30 some years in our area.  ............................YURTS RULE!!!!

   below is a few pics of the yurt during the storm with the snow load and from inside the yurt door.

Also, here are some pics of my car buried in the snow and some pics of the deck at the house to show the deepness of this snow...

I realize that this snowfall may not be significant to some who live in places where this is probably normal for most winters.  However, this area in the last 30+ years is a rare event and is recognized for its beauty and strength of who is "really" in charge. 

We  have since moved back into the house due to the thaw out once again bringing spring like temperatures to enjoy and hopefully will give way to a coming new season.  Which will be a welcome to our area after this winters harsh winter.   The front yard of the yard is once again standing water and I have had enough mud to track through this winter, so I am residing to my house until spring and summer gets here with a new adventure of wanting to be back in my NEW 30 ft yurt I hope to have up in the woods soon.  With all the improvement of what I learned with this yurt I should have the perfect yurt to enjoy and perhaps stay next winter in........ 

More pics of snow of 2014 in at our home in the Southwestern Blue Ridge Mtns, Dugspur, VA;

 steve with a yard stick coming back from walking and taking pics of the yurt and area.

 our drive way shown to the crest of the hill going toward the road which you can't see from the upstairs window of the house.

 *notice the small building looks like a out house BUT NOT,  lol  its the guinea house on the right side of it about 30 ft is the yurt.  cant' see it... just giving an outlook of the layout of our land.

 front yard of the house and coming up the drive toward the house (you can verily see through the trees) Steve was walking while snowing hard so it was difficult to see a good distance ahead. this is the second side drive to our house.  

 This pic taken from the front of the house is the drive going toward the road (road is actually behind the second row of trees over hill.

 this picture is taken in front of the yurt door showing the drive to the road behind the trees.

 beautiful yard pictures of the snow..............

This is the picture week and half after the snow hit and now with temperature averaging in the mid 50's and a rain yesterday the snow has finally mostly melted away.  This shows more of the drive and with the guinea house showing along to the right you can see the yurt roof (tan and grey steep over the hillside.  it is still standing strong. taken from the deck of the house.

pictue from crest of drive to the road below... shadow of guniea house where the yurt sits on a semi muddy level now on the right.

 This picture shows after the snow fall but also as you see a route dug from the yurt to the edge of the hill to drain water accumulating under the yurt causing issues of small leaks in the yurt with tiny holes from the rock penetrating through the fabric floor due to inadequate clearing before placing the yurt down.  This occurred through out 6 years of traffic inside the yurt but I don't believe this would have happened if it was on a deck or some sort of platform... plus i believe the yurt has settled down into a low place in the ground through the years as well. As you can see the from the dome that it leans more toward the front due to settling in the years as well. this has nothing to do with the recent snow load, it has been doing this for the last year or so.  Steve has prompt the front door frame up several times trying to avoid more settling throughout the summer, fall and winter.... I believe we will take this one down and relocate it with a proper scraped ground area or if possible a small platform for it to sit on this summer.

 a closer look at the mud I mentioned throughout thawing and freezing this winter, overwhelming me also to move back to the house..... for now.  I will probably have to reseed the yard this spring.

Ice and snow still in front of the yurt week and half afterwards.

   

ourt 20ft yurt is over 6 yrs old standing in the same spot through several seasons before we actually decided to test for the winter, living in it.

Greetings everyone!
I have returned to add more to my blog of living in a 20ft yurt for the winter. 

   Well looks like ol' man winter isn't done with us yet in the Southwest Va.  Like I said this has been the coldest and harsh winter I have seen in this area for over 26 yrs.  This was the perfect winter to choose to experiment with our yurt for winter durability.

   I want to mention that this 20ft yurt is over 6 yrs old and has been placed on the ground with a layer of reg 14 oz fabric as used to build the yurt for the floor cup.  No other source of flooring other than a few throw rugs to walk on.  Throughout the years this has been working pretty good, with some exceptions of an occasional hole working its way through from large rocks on the ground surface, which should have been dealt with before we placed it down.  Next yurt will have all rocks cleared away and a thin layer of small pea gravel and sand packed before laying the floor cup on it. Actually, if I can raise the money I think a deck would be much more appropriate for the yurt or some kind of platform under it.  Then the floor cup will hold up a lot better and look better as well.

Picture below of our yurt directly on the ground with only the floor cup separating the bare ground and our feet inside. Note: the green floor surface in the bottom picture is the fabric floor cup. throw rugs throughout the yurt for more cozy and warmer feel to walk on.

 

I cannot believe how "COLD" this winter has been!!!  Southwest Virginia is usually an average of 30 degrees or so for many past winters as I remember.... but this winter has been extremely cold.  We have set several records, and wind chill factor has been in the -teens, once almost -20.  Like I have said before, this was a great winter to experiment with our yurt.

Through all the blowing and gusting winds and sub zero temperatures the yurt has done exceptionally well. With a wood stove in a small 4 x 8 building connected to the yurt it has stayed toasty warm inside.  I am very pleased with it.  (and I am NOT a winter person).

The water has been a challenge though, our water barrel has been getting low and the hose from the house has frozen and busted in a few areas now, so back to carrying water back and forth from the house.  Hopefully that will end when I can get my hands on another water hose.  The stores are beginning to put spring inventory out so I should acquire one soon.  Next time I need to try to leave it more on the bank so we won't run over it with the cars.  lol

One thing I am trying to deal with is the black smoke that the stove puts out occasionally either from the outside pipes getting clogged with coal soot or the wind gusts occasionally blowing it back through the stove and out into the yurt, I hate that the smell of burning coal.  It is probably due to the small area is why the smoke disturbs me so.....I am wanting to get more wood to burn but for now until Steve gets a chance to get some in we have to settle for coal.  It does burn hot though and with some of the cold nights lately, -5 or single digits it feels cozy in the yurt.  I am sure the wood could do the same though, it did well when we had it available awhile back.

I am looking forward to enlarging our yurt this spring, as we didn't get the chance to last fall as planned.  Sometimes I feel a bit of cabin fever sitting in a 20ft yurt, could be just the winter though, I don't like going out in the cold. So I stay indoors at all possible except to feed the animals in the morning and evening.

It was like spring yesterday morning (Jan 14). I heard a few song birds singing and a couple of Canadian geese flew by honking, going to the pond at the near by horse farm. Of course as late afternoon arrived it began to get a cooler brisk in the air and became much chillier, no song birds and all I heard was crows again.  supposed to rain and possible snow today and tonight.  Oh how I long for spring.... I have had enough of cold weather for this winter.

•  lets talk about our electricity in our yurt.  

As I had said earlier in my blog we are trying to explore the "off grid" experience as well.  What better way to do this but in a "yurt" right?  lol  We have got a couple of small solar panels outside hooked up to a boat battery.  as my picture shows below: 

As you can see the battery was running the TV, DVD player (watching my favorite show MASH) and charging my laptop, along with the internet router.  This ran for about 7 hrs before the battery went almost dead and we disconnected it.  Of course, it took about 10 to 12 hours to charge back up on the solar panels the next day. 

Now of course we need more electricity than what these 3 panels and one battery can supply.  So meanwhile we have our yurt plugged into an outside plug (like a camp post in a camp ground) that stretches to the house near by.  Steve has got a regular breaker box inside the yurt that has several 110 breakers in it with outlets and switches distributed though out the yurt for the microwave, lights, refrigerator coffee maker and computer and other mis. items to plug into as well.  

We need to hook up about twice the solar panels again and add maybe 1 to 2 more batteries to this setup and then see what it does for us.  Alas, until we get extra money available this will have to wait. perhaps this spring.  (boat batteries are a $100 ea and solar panels are not cheap.)

Stay tuned in for more updates soon.  

Cold breaking records throughout the US!!!!

living in Va with temperatures normally in the 20's or teens at a normal winter night.  This morning was -5 and wind chill around -28 below..... brrrr cold very cold..... but my yurt was 68 this morning and after I stoked the fire it went up to 75 with 0 outside.  I am very happy with the results of my heating in our yurt.  no pipes freezing due to my barrel of water inside the yurt... so I have water where my neighbors may not.

Here are some pics of the 20ft yurt I am living in.

Ok, learned something new... use chrome, it works better.

First thing to living in a yurt is the water situation.  I am wanting to live in the yurt off the grid as much as possible and affordable.  So simplifying living is a key thing.  less electricity as possible.

• How to prevent the water from freezing in the yurt during the winter.

We, meaning my husband and I, have a water system connected to the yurt that words great for the warmer months.  On the hillside from the yurt are several 55 gallon plastic barrels filled with water.  A black water pipe line from the barrel to the yurt underground.  This is gravity fed to the indoor faucet inside the yurt, works great!   However, no "hot" water, that is made on the propane stove in a kettle.  Washing dishes is a little more time consuming but not too bad.  Heat water pour in dishpan and wash, rinse and dry in a rack on the counter, old school, no problem.  My issue is a bigger sink, have a camper sink currently. 

Back to the freezing issue, since the water is outside it is prone to freeze during the colder months of winter along with the pipe freezing as well.  So, we came up with an idea of placing a 55 gallon plastic barrel in the back bathroom of the yurt.  This will keep the water at room temperature but then we had to figure how to pump the water to the faucet.  Well, as of now I use a hand siphon pump and fill jugs to take over to the sink area.  I have a large thermos that holds a gallon of water and I set it at the corner of the sink, just pump the top and squirt water out as I need it..... runs out quickly though and have to refill.  I am looking at a battery operated pump to connect to the barrel and run along the edge of the floor to the sink to get it back working as before.   

• How to heat yurt efficiently enough for the cold months of winter. 

No problem, a wood stove!  We had been heating with a infrared heater, works well in the spring and fall.  Not for the cold, cold winter nights though.  We had insulation in our yurt, the "bubble wrap" from the beginning when we first put in our yurt.  It had basically dry rotted, crumbled away after a few years standing.  We then started using close cell polyurethane for insulation, it works pretty good but I wanted to try something different.  we were given rolls of 1/4" filter fabric from a friend.  It is only 2' wide large rolls, but we wrapped our yurt walls with it about 2 layers thick.  then put our outside wall fabric back over it.  It seems to do as well as the polyurethane insulation.  However, for the roof we didn't want to take it back off, (big job to do so) so we decided to actually use regular R-13 4" insulation strips in between each rafter. ( I have a picture uploaded of this being done.)    It was alot of work as well, but turned out to work great and worth all the effort.  

We decided on attaching a small 4x8 shed to the yurt from the back bathroom. (due to the size of the yurt we needed the space for living)  The wood stove was placed inside the shed and with a door frame cut in the yurt providing access to the shed we could keep the mess of wood and coal for our stove out of site and contained in one area.  It turned out well, and now for the past cold spells that we have had the yurt is staying toasty warm in temperatures of 8 degrees outside and mid 70's, 80's or warmer in the yurt. Sometimes I have to open the door to let the cool air in cause it gets so hot in the yurt.  lol  One night it got to 95 and I was baking... opened the door and started to fan it trying to cool off.

I have alot more to share about my experience so far, so keep up with the post....

Getting started with my post

I am going to try this posting another time.  I am new at blogging and trying to get this to work is challenging... perhaps I need to use Google Chrome?

Ok, living in a 20ft yurt for the winter:

I love my yurt and living in it during the spring, summer and fall is grand.  Now I want to experience it in the winter.  What a winter to choose!!  This winter (2013/14) has been a great challenge, the coldest Va has had in years.  This is good though, gives me more of a test for our yurt.