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Gotta Getta Ger

- the Permanent Temporary Movable Structure

by Sheri Dixon

We have the land.  

We have a house we are selling. 

Our next step is to move all our stuff and us over TO the land and build our home. 

Although we love to camp, and in recent history here in Texas, we could lay out all of our stuff in the naked meadow after June 1^st without fear of a raindrop touching it before October, some sort of shelter seems prudent. 

*This article is not about LIVING in a Ger (yurt), but about the choosing, research and shopping end of the process.  The assemblage and living part will be another story… 

Unless you have found a place with a home already on it (my last two homesteads have been one of these), or have a lot of money lying idle and can afford to build your new house while living in your old house (I’ve heard some people can actually do this, although no one in my social circle can claim such high finance), you’ll be faced with the dilemma of where to live in the ‘between time’. 

Mainstream Americans put most of their stuff in storage and either rent a place for the 6-8 months it takes for their builder to put up their house, or buy a little mobile home and set it out yonder while the builder does his thing then have it hauled off when they are done.  A few daring folks will live in a camper, and a few will move in with relatives. 

None of these options are open to us because:

-No one in their right mind would rent to someone with over 100 critters

-Mobile homes come equipped with things like appliances and kitchen counters - things we are bringing with us and it would be redundant to put ours in storage while paying for theirs

-We don’t have access to a camper, plus, with our health issues and the time it will take to build our permanent house, more room and comfort will be necessary to keep a semblance of sanity

-We really want to maintain good relations with our relations. This requires a respectful distance at all times.

And our plans are to build our permanent house.  Not “hire a builder, choose a plan and pick out colors and faucets” kind of building. More of a “design it out on graph paper, accumulate the supplies, learn and assemble as we go” sort of building.  So our timeline is a little different.  My conservative estimate is five years from start to finish - paying as we go.  Granted, life may get in the way of this plan and cause it to be amended, but that’s the plan today, and we’re sticking to it.

After hearing “So what’re ya’ll gonna do? Live in a tent?” for the thousandth time from friends and acquaintances, Ward looked at me and said, “You know, I’ve always thought yurts were neat”.  

Thus began “YurtQuest”. 

(Adding being very aware that we are, in fact, sitting front row/center of Tornado Alley, we will not be moving into our yurt without first having in place a storm shelter. We may be eccentric, but we ain’t crazy) 

Yurts are the traditional homes of nomadic tribes who make their livelihood following their flocks across a forbidding landscape.  A yurt is designed to be a permanent, movable home, which only sounds contradictory.  The original yurts (Mongolian Gers) are assembled from local materials (saplings, cotton cloth and lots and lots of felted wool) and have been fine tuned over the last 3,000 years or so to be cool in the hot summer sun, warm in the frigid winters, as well as stay upright and strong through the flat line winds coming from the steppes.  

Here in the US, yurts have been adjusted, updated and built large scale by three companies: Pacific Yurts (http://www.yurts.com/what/default.aspx), Ranier (http://www.rainieryurts.com/), and Colorado Yurts (http://www.coloradoyurt.com/).  

All three come recommended by actual American yurt-dwellers as having quality products and very good, to excellent, customer service. 

After looking at all three sites, and using the handy (and fun) price quote estimators, I called both Ranier and Pacific, whose friendly sales staff sent out informative packets.  The packet from Pacific was more in-depth and flashy, so being a creature drawn to such things, and the fact that their yurts priced out as less expensive, I’ve been working with and talking to Scott at Pacific to get the Yurt of Our Dreams.  

The yurts built by one of the above companies are sleek, clean-lined, and beautiful in simplicity - unlikely, yet wonderful, crosses of “Girl Scout Sleepover Camp Platform Tent” and “Yuppie Renovated Warehouse on the River Loft”.  They use state of the art materials to ensure a non-leaking, comfortable, very livable space that is as strong as something made mainly of cloth can be. 

I was happy.  I had a plan.  I knew what I was doing. 

Then my friend Dawn skipped in and ruined it all. 

It came as an innocent looking email titled, “Look at THESE”. 

And my world tilted flat off of its orbit. 

Gers.  Authentic Mongolian Gers made by Authentic Mongolians.  And importable to the US.  

Where the U.S. Yurt is sleek, a Mongolian Ger is touchable - like a teddy bear. They are decorated outside by embroidery around the doorway and inside by each…and…every…rafter being painted with elaborate designs and set off by carvings which match the carvings on the door and toono (circular opening at the top of the roof).  The wood is painted in bright colors, which is appealing to me.  The outer cloth, inner cloth and felting are really cloth and felt, which is appealing to me.  The fact that the Mongolian Ger - made and painted to order in the same way they’ve been made for thousands of years is CHEAPER even shipped from the other side of the planet than the ones made in a factory in Oregon is WILDLY appealing to me.

So I contacted three companies selling ‘Authentic Mongolian Ger' and got a response from one of them: (http://www.mongolyurt.mn/en/yourtegb.html#yurt).    Heloise Rey is very helpful and patient, sending a lot of pictures and answering all my questions to the best of her abilities.  

I also joined a Yahoo group (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/The_Yurt_Community/), and was instantly embroiled in the (previously unknown to me) vicious war between ‘"Traditional" and "modern" yurt/ger owners. 

Traditional ger enthusiasts say that the US made yurts are flimsy, plastic mutations of a time tested and loved building form.  They say if a yurt is not surrounded by felt, it’s not a yurt - it’s a tent.  And there’s nothing wrong with a tent - just don’t call it a yurt.  They say that if a yurt is built with solid walls and windows, it’s not a yurt - it’s a round house. And there’s nothing wrong with a round house - just don’t call it a yurt.  A traditional ger’s lattice is it’s bones, and the felt is it’s muscle - stabilizing and holding the ger intact in wind storms so they don’t need "snow and wind kit" add-ons like the modern ones.  A traditional ger stands on the ground - solid earth beneath it (covered with rugs), natural wood and wool on the sides and the sky open through the toono.  One door.  No windows (although the Mongolian companies will add them to appeal to the American market).  Traditionally, air is circulated by simply rolling up part of the side, causing the cooler air on the ground to ooze in and rise up and out the toono as it gets warmer. The door is solid wood, sometimes bracketed by narrow windows; decoration and carvings showing the status of its occupants. Inside, the placement of furniture and living areas are strictly adhered to from ger to ger. This ger is made to be taken down in a few hours’ time, strapped to the back of a yak, and re-built in the same amount of time at the new grazing grounds.  

Continued

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