Sap Season. It is something I never thought about before marrying my husband. We never tapped trees when I was a kid, and therefore, never made our own Maple Syrup. However, over the past 12 years, it is something that I have grown to enjoy more than I ever imagined I would! My husband grew up making Maple Syrup with his family. They own a lot of property with Maple trees and so it was a family affair! Sometimes requiring overnights, in the woods, to keep the sap cooking! It is time consuming, for sure, but otherwise a fairly easy process! There are three main reasons I'd encourage you to try your hand at making Maple Syrup. With a few tips, on how to do it well, in a Yurt.

I’m a carpenter. I know how to build things. Nevertheless, there was a lot I didn’t know going into the project of building our yurt home. In my frustration I even dubbed one of the yurts “Matthew’s Folly” and the other the “Yurt of Hurt”. We’re not just happy-go-lucky hippies who do weird things because we think we’re cool or enlightened. We would have much rather built a house. The reasons we decided on yurts are, first, that we could afford it, and second, because it seemed like a good way to get away from moldy homes. One of the things I hoped would be a great benefit is that everything in a yurt is accessible - there is no crawlspace or wall cavities to quietly harbor damp and mold. Mold is the main reason we were forced out of our previous homes; mold hiding somewhere that would have cost a fortune to find and mitigate. However, the minimalistic building style has some challenges, and they mostly have to do with weather. I like to tell people that we are very close to nature. Thereis no question if it is raining, snowing or blowing, because the canvass transmits the information passionately. We are also acutely aware of the outdoor temperature without even going outside. Now, in our third year living in the yurts, I am still figuring out what to do to mitigate these problems, while at the same time maintaining the benefits of the unconventional construction and not breaking the bank.

If you homeschool or have thought about homeschooling, you may be wondering how to set up a learning space for your children. If you live in a Yurt, you may be wondering if you have enough space to devote just to learning. This was my concern also!

It's that time of year again! There's a crispness in the air. The leaves are starting to change, and the apples (so many apples) are ready for picking! If you have an apple tree, you probably want to know what to do with all of those apples! 

When Summer started, I was in a bit of a bind with all three girls home, needing lunch ideas, and not being able to as easily get to the store. Sandwiches are a bit of a go to around here, but the ingredients in store bought bread leave a little something to be desired. So what do you do when you are a mom of three young girls and you want to feed them the healthiest foods possible?

It's the beginning of Summer and it has been RAINING!!! We had a drought last year, but it's looking like this year might be different! One thing I can say with utmost assurance is that living in a yurt brings you VERY close to nature! I take comfort in knowing that round structures handle wind better than square buildings, but hail on a canvas roof feels a little nerve-wracking ...

WOW!!!!  It has been four months since I have written! I took two college courses during the last four months and got my Associate Degree in Liberal Studies. My youngest daughter turned 3, in April, on the 1st anniversary of my older brother's passing. Also in April, my oldest brother moved home from Oklahoma after 25 years! In May, my older two girls finished Kindergarten and 2nd Grade, and construction on the spiral staircase for the loft progressed!  We also celebrated my mom's 70th birthday, my parent's 50th wedding anniversary, and my niece's High School Graduation!  It's been a busy four months, but especially in May!

One Year!!  We have been in our Yurt Home for one year ... and a few days!  My how time flies!  We moved in last year, on January 6th, 2023, and never looked back!  Okay ... maybe we looked back a little bit.  We have found ourselves asking if we've made the right decision many times over.  Quickly followed by, "but this was really our ONLY option!"  We've had our challenges, but we are learning to get used to our Yurt Home.  Dare I even say that we are getting comfortable?  There is still A LOT of work to do, but slowly and surely, we are making it feel more and more like home.  Our dreams (that felt like they were in the VERY distant future after having to give up our farmette) are starting to look a little clearer.  Things are slowly starting to come into focus.  And by slowly, I mean S.L.O.W.L.Y!  We can only do things as time and money allow, and we are short on both, so things don't happen as quickly as we'd like them too!  Most days, we still feel like we are merely surviving, but we are getting closer to the life that we have been hoping to create for ourselves.

It's upon us!  Christmas is almost here!  It is my favorite season, but also my busiest.  Aside from holiday planning and shopping, we also have our oldest daughter's birthday and our wedding anniversary to celebrate ... all in the month of December, with my birthday following shortly behind, on January 7th!  We did a lot of simplifying this year!  I'm finally doing a nutritionist lead detox, to start to heal from mold illness, and all food indulgences are out of the question.  So no crazy birthday cake, big Christmas meal, or anniversary dinner.  When you simply can't even try to do it all, it makes things a lot less stressful!  It forces you to slow down a little bit and enjoy what this time of year is really all about.  For our family it is about celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ our Lord and Savoir.  Without his birth there would be no reason to celebrate!

It is true that Thanksgiving is the time we are supposed to be focused on all of the things we are thankful for.  There is no lack of things to be thankful for: healthy kids, a warm house, friends and family that care about us, but this Thanksgiving was different.  Dare I say, "hard".  The last time I saw my brother was the Sunday after Thanksgiving.  November 27th, 2022.  My parents had Christmas with Jeff and his girlfriend, at their place, and we had obligations with Matt's family.  I spoke with Jeff briefly, on the phone, Christmas Eve when we were at my parent's and his younger daughter called.  He texted me, "Happy Birthday" in January, and I texted him, "Happy Birthday" in February, but by the end of February, he was using again, and so then I didn't have a lot of communication with him after that.  The next thing I knew, along came April ... and my brother was GONE! 

It has been almost a half a year since I wrote anything!  My brother's passing really took it out of me for a LONG time!  I'm still struggling with his loss.  I've never been so heartbroken in my life!  If I'm being honest, I've really been struggling to write.  I feel like I need to stick to the topic of Yurt living, but it's not really what's at the core of my thoughts and feelings.  Honestly, the Yurt was our last ditch effort to help with my health issues, and get out of mold.  It was also the only option we could afford in the way of building new.  It was not our dream to live in a Yurt Home, and it hasn't been easy!  There have been a lot of challenges, from the seams leaking, and having dripping in our hallway to the dome building up a lot of condensation in the Winter, and then when it melts, it drips right down into the middle of our living space. We finally have a loft that is now mine and my husbands "bedroom", but it is kneeling space at best.  We are a bit crammed up there!   When the wind blows hard, in the night, the sound of the canvas creaking keeps me awake, and it was sweltering HOT inside in the heat of the summer!  I think we reached about 90 degrees INSIDE our yurts!