BS: It's a Yurt...Maeve & Truelove

Subject: RE: BS: It's a Yurt...Maeve & Truelove
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 07 Feb 11 - 08:28 PM

did you have half an egg each for brekkie?

Subject: RE: BS: It's a Yurt...Maeve & Truelove
From: maeve
Date: 07 Feb 11 - 08:37 PM

It's a funny thing, Sandra; I always have to admire the first egg for a day or two. It seems to me a pearl of beauty; almost a holy thing, coming in the midst of winter cold. Maybe tomorrow!

Subject: RE: BS: It's a Yurt...Maeve & Truelove
From: jacqui.c
Date: 08 Feb 11 - 07:48 AM

Enjoy that egg!

Subject: RE: BS: It's a Yurt...Maeve & Truelove
From: Allan C.
Date: 09 Feb 11 - 06:00 AM

A New Englander once quoted what he described as a local saying (Vermont, I believe,)

"Use it up. Wear it out.
Make it do or do without."



Congrats on the sink deal.

Subject: RE: BS: It's a Yurt...Maeve & Truelove
From: Bobert
Date: 09 Feb 11 - 08:43 AM

$3 sink???

Why so much???

Jus' funnin'.... Is it a pedestal or wall mount???

(Could be a kitchen sink, Bobz???)

Oh, is it a kitchen sink???

Reminds me of when we moved in here and I was building out the kitchen and I had an old heavy plastic utility sink that I used at a project in Winschester... So I'd jerry-rig it at night so we could wash dishes and then take it out the following morning so I could work... Have sink, will travel... lol...

B~

Subject: RE: BS: It's a Yurt...Maeve & Truelove
From: My guru always said
Date: 10 Feb 11 - 05:01 AM

Morning Maeve, raining here today! Hope Spring is starting to show more and that the thaw is starting. Sending warm thoughts, love & hugs,
Hil x

Subject: RE: BS: It's a Yurt...Maeve & Truelove
From: mouldy
Date: 10 Feb 11 - 06:20 AM

Glad to hear there's been a bit more progress. And big congrats who whoever laid the egg! It's perhaps a sign that although we may not always be able to feel spring round the corner, the animals and birds can!

Remember, every little piece going into the yurt (however small) is one less to be done!

Andrea x

Subject: RE: BS: It's a Yurt...Maeve & Truelove
From: SINSULL
Date: 10 Feb 11 - 09:22 AM

An egg! Means more sunlight! All good.
I think of you every morning maeve when I rise to cold floors and cold walls. It is bitter cold.
Stay safe.
Mary

Subject: RE: BS: It's a Yurt...Maeve & Truelove
From: maeve
Date: 10 Feb 11 - 11:23 AM

Thanks, Mary. We be safe. Not comfortable or particularly happy, but safe.

Sink- It's just a stainless steel largish bar sink; something that might be useful somewhere.

We're in a holding pattern until the extreme cold weather pattern breaks. There is no progress except that the utility company did come to run a cable from the utility pole to the yurt. There's one outlet, in the basement. Chickadees are all singing the spring song, never mind the 5-6 foot piles of snow with 2-3 feet of the stuff on the ground and buildings.

Subject: RE: BS: It's a Yurt...Maeve & Truelove
From: Bobert
Date: 10 Feb 11 - 11:48 AM

Stainless for $3... Call the sheriff and turn yerselves in...

I wish shipping a sink wasn't so expensive... I took a wonderful bathroom sink out of the hotel... It is large wall mount and has two really nice chrome legs for the front corners so it is handicap accessible... Probably from the 20's... Never seen anything quite like it...

Oh well...

B~

Subject: RE: BS: It's a Yurt...Maeve & Truelove
From: maeve
Date: 11 Feb 11 - 06:41 AM

This morning's inside temperature is 23F/-5C, outside it's -12F/-24C.

Subject: RE: BS: It's a Yurt...Maeve & Truelove
From: My guru always said
Date: 11 Feb 11 - 07:36 AM

Holding you in my warm thoughts! Your strength is amazing!

Subject: RE: BS: It's a Yurt...Maeve & Truelove
From: Bobert
Date: 11 Feb 11 - 08:00 AM

Sounds like Virginia weather, maeve...

14F here on the Blue Ridge Mountain...

Sounds as if yer getting some warming from the basement... That's a good thing... Got Mr. Sun going and next thing ya' know it'll be right comfy in the yurtsburg...

B~

Subject: RE: BS: It's a Yurt...Maeve & Truelove
From: maeve
Date: 11 Feb 11 - 08:30 AM

Good morning, Bobert. We're still living in the camper. It's very cold; 23 inside and 16 below zero outside. We have no water again...frozen solid. I'm sick with a bad cold (that's what I get for performing in a concert in the outside world!)

Glad you're doing ok, though. Best of luck with selling your house. Your sink sounds nice. We used to have a nice little restaurant in the village, and they had great deep double basin sinks in the bathrooms. We're still figuring out what we want for our bathroom and what we can afford.

Keep well,

Maeve

Subject: RE: BS: It's a Yurt...Maeve & Truelove
From: maeve
Date: 11 Feb 11 - 02:57 PM

I just read my last entry again. Sounds like I'm whinging; don't mean to do so.

Subject: RE: BS: It's a Yurt...Maeve & Truelove
From: My guru always said
Date: 11 Feb 11 - 04:52 PM

Hardly whinging Sweet Maeve. You're coping, coping well under the circumstances. Hugs!!!

Subject: RE: BS: It's a Yurt...Maeve & Truelove
From: gnu
Date: 11 Feb 11 - 05:03 PM

Main thing sleeping in those temps is making sure ya got enough "insulation" under ya. Better to have lots of blankets or whatever UNDER even moreso than over. Yer sleepin in a trailer so the matresses are thin and that's BAD. Yer cold could easily be bronchitis caused by cold from UNDER you. Cut some fir boughs and put em under a blanket under the matress. Smells nice too.

Subject: RE: BS: It's a Yurt...Maeve & Truelove
From: maeve
Date: 11 Feb 11 - 05:31 PM

Thanks, Hils and gnu.

Good idea, gnu. Balsam fir would smell good. The mattress is a thick normal one, and it's the warmest place in the camper. The water tank is under there and acts as insulation from the outside cold. It's the pipes between the tank and the sink that have frozen.

My cold is a viral infection from the sneezing audience at the concert. I usually don't eat public refreshments at concerts, but I was hungry. My mistake. Asthma makes an ordinary cold feel worse. I haven't had a cold for years.

Subject: RE: BS: It's a Yurt...Maeve & Truelove
From: gnu
Date: 11 Feb 11 - 05:56 PM

If you have a regular mattress, the fir is best left on the tree. Pine gum boiled on the stove in small amounts will help with the cold but I suppose that would be a bad thing to do in a trailer. No need to wake up with yer hair frozen to the window. I have seen that and it was hilarious at the time but not good in the long run.

An alternative is to stick a small drop of pine gum on the back of your eye teeth before you go to bed at night. Just make sure it's well stuck between the two eye theeth just below the gum line.

Subject: RE: BS: It's a Yurt...Maeve & Truelove
From: maeve
Date: 11 Feb 11 - 06:01 PM

I hear you on the window freezing thing, gnu. Our pillows are either wet or frozen to the window most mornings, from the condensation on the window. Even with weatherproofing plastic over the window, the contrast in temperatures pulls moisture out of the air.

Subject: RE: BS: It's a Yurt...Maeve & Truelove
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 11 Feb 11 - 06:04 PM

For under bed insulation, try a couple - side by side to cover under the whole mattress if larger than a bedroll/sleeping bag - those yoga mates/camping mats. I used to use them and a scrap of carpet when sleeping on the ground when camping. I also found that wrapping myself in a queens bed size doona (a synthetic one not a feather one) - the size is almost double a single bed - would help a lot, the under as well as over. If you can get scraps of that blue house insulation paper, try some under the mattress too.

Subject: RE: BS: It's a Yurt...Maeve & Truelove
From: Jeri
Date: 11 Feb 11 - 06:27 PM

My mom lived in a mobile home and used heat tape on her pipes. I think it just uses enough electricity to stay above freezing.

I'm sorry you're sick living in a cold environment usually helps keep you from catching cold, but if you have one, try to stay warm. I'd make you some chicken soup if I lived closer, AND if I weren't afraid of offending your chickens.

Subject: RE: BS: It's a Yurt...Maeve & Truelove
From: maeve
Date: 11 Feb 11 - 06:46 PM

Hey there, Jeri. I don't discuss our menu with our bantams.

We are warm in bed, even if it means wearing hats and layers. We are warm out of bed, again wearing hats and layers. By mid-afternoon, we can shuck the hats and coats. We just have to work harder at staying warm when the weather is so very cold. We haven't had any cold viruses here for quite a while, but when I am part of a concert I find that viruses and bacteria tend to follow me home, no matter how I try to prevent it.

I've heard the heat tape works pretty well under a mobile home. We don't have a way to run one or plug it in at this point. We've packed snow all around the camper and up the walls, and there is no external outlet.

Foolstroupe, thanks for stopping by. I'm sure those good ideas for insulating a bed in a camper will help someone who is reading this thread.

Maeve

Subject: RE: BS: It's a Yurt...Maeve & Truelove
From: maeve
Date: 11 Feb 11 - 06:52 PM

Hello Guest. The chooks get lovely warm porridge and other delights as needed. They are fine.

The heat tapes work fine in the right applications.

Subject: RE: BS: It's a Yurt...Maeve & Truelove
From: maeve
Date: 11 Feb 11 - 07:05 PM

I don't know where that post went, Guest. I saw it the first time you posted it.

Maeve

Subject: RE: BS: It's a Yurt...Maeve & Truelove
From: gnu
Date: 11 Feb 11 - 07:05 PM

That was me with the heat tracing... tossed my cookie somehow.

Subject: RE: BS: It's a Yurt...Maeve & Truelove
From: maeve
Date: 11 Feb 11 - 07:08 PM

I should have known, gnu, with the satellite reference. I bet the lost cookie explains the vanishing post.

Subject: RE: BS: It's a Yurt...Maeve & Truelove
From: Janie
Date: 11 Feb 11 - 07:49 PM

My sympathies, Maeve, for the cold, and especially for the frozen pipes. That was the biggest hassle, as well as the most expensive when they busted, that we had during our 6 years of living in a travel trailer. (And our idea of a cold snap was usually a series of nights when the temps dropped below 20F and the days didn't get above freezing.)

Subject: RE: BS: It's a Yurt...Maeve & Truelove
From: maeve
Date: 11 Feb 11 - 07:57 PM

Thanks, Janie. This too shall pass.

Subject: RE: BS: It's a Yurt...Maeve & Truelove
From: Bobert
Date: 11 Feb 11 - 08:22 PM

Danged... If I could only think of a way to get the trailer in the yurt... Where's John in Kansas???...

Hey, how about clear plastic, like half a tent, from the roof to the ground on the south side of the trailer to act as a solar collector??? Yeah, yea might have to get a piece large enough to go over the entire trailer but if you could corral some solar that might help...

23 degrees inside is dangerously cold to be living in... I mean, eskimos do better in igloos...

Burrrrrrr....

B~

Subject: RE: BS: It's a Yurt...Maeve & Truelove
From: maeve
Date: 11 Feb 11 - 08:32 PM

We're fine, no worries, Bobert. Pretty soon we'll be on the other side of this bitter cold, and then we can get going on the yurt again.

Goodnight, y'all.

Subject: RE: BS: It's a Yurt...Maeve & Truelove
From: ChanteyLass
Date: 12 Feb 11 - 12:26 AM

Good morning, Maeve! If I were living in a 23-degree indoor environment, I would have tears frozen to my face. You and Truelove are much hardier than I. And having frozen pipes, too . . . . I remember being without running water, and I was not a happy camper (even though I was living in a house). I hope today (I'm posting past midnight) is warmer than yesterday. The only thing I can suggest is wool (or electric mattress pads which, since heat rises, are, I hope, more effective than electric blankets).

Subject: RE: BS: It's a Yurt...Maeve & Truelove
From: Cuilionn
Date: 12 Feb 11 - 07:47 PM

Maeve-- Last Sunday I dropped by the UCC church in New Gloucester, Maine. The pastor's sermon opened with the following quote, which elicited much rueful laughter from her congregation:

"As Joseph Krutch said, 'The most serious charge which can be brought against New England is not Puritanism but February.'"

Thought of you--and then went home and spent some time defrosting OUR pipes, too.

--Cuilionn, your sister in Winter Solidarity

Subject: RE: BS: It's a Yurt...Maeve & Truelove
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 12 Feb 11 - 08:01 PM

It's currently 23 degrees here, but 23 degrees Centigrade is not all that bad ....

Subject: RE: BS: It's a Yurt...Maeve & Truelove
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 13 Feb 11 - 06:53 AM

I also prefer our 23˚C

Subject: RE: BS: It's a Yurt...Maeve & Truelove
From: katlaughing
Date: 26 Feb 11 - 08:50 PM

Holy Cow, I have missed a bunch! I hope by now your cold is gone and you are feeling better, Maeve. And, that Spring is just around the corner!

luvyakat

Subject: RE: BS: It's a Yurt...Maeve & Truelove
From: freda underhill
Date: 26 Feb 11 - 09:48 PM

23 - minus 5! that's tough. the chooks sound warm though! yes, I hope it's a bit warmer there now!

freda

Subject: RE: BS: It's a Yurt...Maeve & Truelove
From: maeve
Date: 27 Feb 11 - 07:22 AM

In the last thread,revived when Max kindly took time to look at Jacqui's photo link, Sandra asked about the weather. This past week, we had just cleared two feet of snow off of the yurt roof in time to have the wood stove and insulated chimney pipe installed. By the next morning we had another blizzard raging which left us with another 12-plus feet of snow.

We cleared that out and this morning have another storm moving through.

Subject: RE: BS: It's a Yurt...Maeve & Truelove
From: maeve
Date: 27 Feb 11 - 07:41 AM

Umm, make that "another 12 INCHES of snow."

Subject: RE: BS: It's a Yurt...Maeve & Truelove
From: VirginiaTam
Date: 27 Feb 11 - 11:28 AM

Oh Maeve, sorry to hear you are cold. I always have hot water bottle at my feet when sleeping in caravan. Makes a huge difference and lasts almost the entire night.

Subject: RE: BS: It's a Yurt...Maeve & Truelove
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 27 Feb 11 - 12:13 PM

Are you able to start using that stove right away, or do things have to sit undisturbed for a while? Any adhesives or insulating materials that need to cure, or are you good to go?

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: It's a Yurt...Maeve & Truelove
From: maeve
Date: 27 Feb 11 - 01:53 PM

Stilly, anyone who asked me for the photo link can enjoy photos of the wood stove merrily burning away in the yurt.

Tam, we're not cold, truly! It takes energy, effort, and various strategies to achieve it, but we are warm even when the camper air is cold.

Subject: RE: BS: It's a Yurt...Maeve & Truelove
From: ChanteyLass
Date: 27 Feb 11 - 04:51 PM

Happy to hear the stove has been installed and is working. When the fire was lit, your faces must have lit up, too.

Subject: RE: BS: It's a Yurt...Maeve & Truelove
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 27 Feb 11 - 05:22 PM

wow! I hope you spent a good amount of time in your chairs in front of the fire, with table holding a warm drink!

it will be a comfy place to inhabit in (snow) stormy weather

sandra

Subject: RE: BS: It's a Yurt...Maeve & Truelove
From: SINSULL
Date: 27 Feb 11 - 05:32 PM

Heat! MCongratulations!
That 5" of snow last night on top of Friday's foot was adding insult to injury.
At least the sun is high and it will melt faster than the last mess.
Progress is really good news, maeve.
Thanks for sharing.
Mary

Subject: RE: BS: It's a Yurt...Maeve & Truelove
From: My guru always said
Date: 28 Feb 11 - 03:44 PM

Wonderful news about the stove and chimmney installation! It's going to be so cosy. Wishing you warm and sending love and hugs!

Subject: RE: BS: It's a Yurt...Maeve & Truelove
From: Crowhugger
Date: 28 Feb 11 - 04:03 PM

Congratulations on your first burn!

Subject: RE: BS: It's a Yurt...Maeve & Truelove
From: maeve
Date: 28 Feb 11 - 04:54 PM

Thank you.

Subject: RE: BS: It's a Yurt...Maeve & Truelove
From: Bobert
Date: 28 Feb 11 - 05:14 PM

Nuthin' better than a wood stove... For heat, that is...

B;~)

Subject: RE: BS: It's a Yurt...Maeve & Truelove
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 28 Feb 11 - 05:15 PM

100!

Ah - that feels better - haven't done it in a while ... :-P