My friend Paula and I were fulling the third piece of the roof felt down at Camas Creek Yarn store on Friday, when two women came down to see what we were doing. It was a mother and daughter. Tris, the daughter, explained that she had adopted a baby boy from Kazakhstan and that he was now 10 years old. She was very interested in the yurt building process so I invited Tris and her son Kostya to join us in felting the last piece of the roof on Sunday.

 

My sister Margaret was also visiting. So just as we started laying out the wool, Tris and Kostya came to help.

I showed Kostya how to wet down the wool.

And he was off and spraying.

Then we covered it up and did a little felt walking to get the air out.

We folded it since it’s so big and then we rolled it up. We’re all working at getting the ties tightened down.

Here I am tightening it down.

And then off it went on the tractor. Kostya was a big help and it was hard to tell who got dirtier knees, me or Kostya.

I also showed Tris and Kostya the yurt frame and how it would go together.

And here he is with the felt that was drying from Friday’s fulling operation. Isn’t he great! I had a great time explaining the yurt and felting process and really appreciated the help – Thanks Kostya and Tris. Hopefully, they will be able to make it to the yurt raising next week.

And speaking of yurt raising, we did a sneak peek Monday to make sure we knew how it will all work and to see what else we need to do.

We had to figure out what height the tono needs to be to achieve the correct angle for the roof poles. It was a bit tricky getting the separate lattice sections overlapped properly but we got that done.

 

So we kept putting it up higher and higher. The poles on the ground are to get the circle the correct size. It doesn’t work well if your circle is off to start.

We eventually got it fairly well figured out. Now we have to tie more cord to attach the roof poles to the walls. But it’s coming together. The party invitations have gone out and the yurt raising is happening next weekend. So exciting!!