We return to Old chapel farm after a short wwoofing stint 2
years ago. Apart from my college placement requiring me to work on a farm for a
whole growing season, we were keen to explore what it takes to live off the
grid and as self sustainably as possible. The living arrangement one of the
most important factor was the first challenge, we shunned the idea of sleeping
in a nice country farmhouse bedroom with all the luxuries of expecting light to
appear at a flick of the switch, demanding water to flow with a turn of the
tap. It has always been our dream to live in a yurt, a round space, our own
space somewhere to call home. It was by far the most realistic type of
structure we could afford to build on our own little farm in the future and now
it was time to test this living space used by Mongolians’ nomadic tribes for
thousands of years. These structures called
Mongolian gers for those in the
know are round structures held up by wooden poles and a canvas to keep the rain
out (that was what we thought!!). These time tested structures are built with
such simplicity but with surprisingly accurate precision has given it the
ability to withstand the strongest of wind so common in central
Asia.
We had 2 dry days forecasted and we set out to erect our 21
ft yurt
within this short window of opportunity. The yurt decking has already
been built on a gentle slope overlooking the green lush valley of old chapel
farm. The winds at this very exposed spot was a little daunting, doubts started
to creep in on the possibility of erecting a temporary structure came to mind
but it was quickly quelled by Fran (our host), they’ve been doing this for the
past 3 years with only some problems in the last few years. The construction or
more in reality the assembling of the yurt wasn’t as hard as we first
anticipated, but we (city folks) still struggled nonetheless. We fumbled with poles dropping on our heads (note: to
remember hard hats the next time), the trellis not fitting together, grossly
entangled ropes which took forever to unknot, there were moments of
frustrations with a tinge of motivation, small challenges crop up all the time
anyways. The entire experience and sense of accomplishment is not the same to
buying a home; the immense joy and satisfaction of putting up your own home is
one that human beings has related to for thousands of years and today we felt
that.
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| Wrong pole for the wrong hole!! |
 |
| Is it over yet? |
 |
| Fumbling with poles |
 |
| What is happening? |
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| Poles again |
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| Here comes the canvas |
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| Our home lovely isn't it!! |
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| The inside |
 |
| Sweet |
So here begins our journey of living almost off grid, with
no on-demand electricity, on demand water and centralized heating!!!
But who
needs all that when I see this view every morning when I open the door.
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