Friday 20 July 2012

5 things...

5 things that are great about yurt living -

1. the beautiful painted roof poles and doorway
2. the clear crown wheel cover fills the space with daylight/moonlight and it makes for some         
   spectacular lightning shows
3. our bespoke handmade higgledy-piggledy furniture
4. we are much more in touch with the outdoors - with nature and the weather
5. i can stay in bed and still be in the thick of family life

5 things that suck about yurt living -

1. once one of the kids is up we all are
2. we are in a mess all of the time even when we are tidy (that may have nothing to do with the yurt)
3. everything needs winding up all the time (papajoe describes this as a 'fun challenge')
4. the mud, the mud, the bloody mud (this may have more to do with the crazy wet summer)
5. i keep banging my head on the four foot door

5 things we still need to do -

1. take down and re build the yurt - we are seriously wonky
2. make a kitchen unit for our new oven
3. build a composting loo/tree bog
4. build beds for us and for kids
5. cut down the floor stuff in a load of felt and sort out the tarp

5 things we have done already -

1. built some very nifty kitchen shelves
2. papajoe built a very interesting outdoor table
3. installed a wood burner
4. located local libraries, swimming pools, charity shops and pub!
5. started organising home ed group - just need a good name

Thursday 12 July 2012

one of those days

sometimes i have these days.. these real down, sulky, slumpy days. i have had these odd days most of my adult life sometimes its ok.. i can shake it off but sometimes it lasts days on end. the need to pack a bag and run for it niggling at the back of my mind. the little voice that says no one would miss you, in fact they would be better off without you. 

today has been one of those days. i woke up cold (we are having some issues with our stove), always a bad start for me. i had a weird dream which had got me stressed about money. i am not someone who cares about money, i have a very "it will work out" attitude towards it. but this last month has been an expensive one and it unnerves me. to be honest i wallowed in it, and the pressure to get three kids and all our washing clean on the only sunny day we have had for a while totally panicked me and i lost it. 

papajoe then insisted that he would take the kids out to the park.. instead of being grateful for the break i took this as a dig at my ability to look after them. i took it as him wanting to get himself and them away from horrible mummy. i got even more upset and unmanageable and so understandably he left. 

first i was devastated, how could he abandon me, and then i felt terrible. it was me, i had pushed them all away. i am unbearable, of course they don't want to be around me. i went for a walk to calm myself down. i found myself marching, i became determined to catch them up, regardless of the fact they had gone in the van and i was on foot. i marched the three or four miles into beccles. by the time i got there i was so desperate to see them i hardly remembered to feel miserable but of course i had missed them. the park was filled with other happy families. 

i tried to call but they didn't answer so after a sit in the church garden i began the walk back. this time as i walked at a more sensible pace i was able to enjoy the twists and turns in the path the poppies and dog roses lining grass and the hedgerows. how lucky i am to have such undulating beauty right on my doorstep. how lucky i am to have a family waiting at home for me, that love me even at my most unpleasant. 

things are not always easy, and i thoroughly except to have crappy days, sometimes worse than crappy but also i will have good days, amazing jump in the air days, sometimes sing and dance days. i just need to open my eyes.. walk a bit slower and who knows what tomorrow will bring... 

Monday 9 July 2012

week no.1

we have survived our first week of yurt living through torrential down pours and severe flood warnings. what is more we have survived unharmed, apart from one small leak by the door and the small bog surrounding us. mainly it has been exactly as expected.. a bit like luxury camping ( i refuse to use the term glamping). 

we have no electric or running water and we have a small walk to the nearest toilet but we do have a wooden floor, a proper front door and tonight a proper mattress! we have borrowed a table from the straw bale building so are managing to be quite civilised at meal times. well as civilsed as you can be when you are baby led weaning and babys favourite food is mashed potato. 

papajoe built us some shelves for our kitchen area which will only need a small amount of tweaking before they are perfect and we are on the hunt for pallets to make some more bits of furniture. the big kids are having a bed designed and built by the lovely tim germain which will be so multi purpose (and curved) i get excited just thinking about it! 

all in all we are settling in nicely, getting to know everyone better and doing odd jobs to help out. if only it would rain just a little less so we could really get out and enjoy the space, visit the beach (only half an hour away) and get started on the millions of jobs we need to get done. 

Tuesday 3 July 2012

yurt building for dummies

we have only gone and done it...

weds 27th june - we set off early to collect the van. the plan, to buy the wood we needed and drop it off on site. papajoe would then head into london to collect the yurt on thursday morning ready for a mad day of floor and yurt building. an easy start? well, first the yurt people rang to say they were away and we couldn't collect till friday then we had a serious maths debacle. papajoe underestimating and me over. i had a miny meltdown (see previous post).

thurs 28th june - uncle piers was late. he slept in and missed his train so we arrived on site (with just us) late. we marked out a circle with string and sticks and then, as all maths skills had deserted us, spent most of the morning lying planks on the floor to correctly work out how many we would need. we were later joined by mrs cleary, one of her lovely boys and finally uncle piers. we picked up all our wood laid our tarp and starting setting out the struts for the base of our deck. by half seven the kids the clearys and i had had enough and we left the boys to start screwing down the first few planks.

fri 29th june - papajoe picked up yurt! he arrived on site at 2 o'clock and since i had been on my own with the kids had not done any more than unwrapping the beginnings of our floor. we began work.. when (wait for it..) my mums boyfriends sisters boyfriend showed up to offer a hand. what a star! we were almost finished when we ran out of battery power for our one drill and one screwdriver (yes we were very prepared!) and so wrapped everything back up and called it a day. 



sat 30th june - determined to set of early we picked uncle piers up at 9 made a quick stop at the diy shop and headed back to site.. today was going to be easy! just a few more screws and onto putting up a yurt. whoops spoke to soon.. the floor was done but turns out we cut it pretty fine. we had a nightmare trying to fit the door and getting all the wall sections the same height. mum came and took some pics and chased the kids around till i couldn't keep my eyes open any longer and she ferried us home. again we left the boys to it but it was late and getting dark, they managed to get her up and get a waterproof cover over her before rushing back to ipswich to miss uncle piers' train. 


sun 1st july - moving in day.. or not. we were exhausted right from the word go so we decided we would take down the waterproof cover and add the proper layers, cotton, then felt, then canvas and plastic, then more canvas and a pvc rain cap, and get back to ipswich for an early night. the wind and the weight of the material held us up and if it wasn't for the help of a man named tim i don't know where we would be. but we did it. she was up, she was dressed and as much as we wanted to stay the night it was good to go back to mums. we had a takeaway and a bottle of fizz and collapsed into unconsciousness.