The raising of the yurt: <<Previous 1 2 3 4
The Raising of the Yurt (July, 2004)
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Final
The yurt stayed up for a bit over a week. We thought we should get people to take turns sleeping in it so it wouldn't be vandalized. But that was a rather chilly week and there were only two nights when somebody volunteered to sleep there. Most of the other nights we kept the doors locked and nobody did any damage. One night we forgot to lock the doors and in the morning there were some new people sleeping there. In the daytime we mostly kept the doors open. Lots of people -- kids, adults -- went inside and sat on the grass in there for a while. The mood was a bit reverential, but it didn't have to be.
The main problem about a real tribal yurt like this one is that when it rains, the felt gets wet and then it's VERY smelly. It did rain this time, and the plastic cover was often put up. Lea Ambros, who was the main person in charge of the yurt, said that before it's put up again we MUST make a better plastic cover.