November 15, 2008 - Ready for Winter

Well, here's the yurt, ready for winter. The carpet scrap nailed to the pallet ramp makes it a lot easier to get up the ramp when it's covered with ice. That wire dangling from near the front door is our phone line. The phone company ran the line underground some 300 feet from the main road to a post terminal within 15 feet of the yurt for free. Wow. Let's see, at about $25/month, they should recoup their investment in about 20 years... This other view, from the back of the yurt has another dangling wire. That's the one that runs from our solar panel stand to the solar controller and battery box inside the yurt.

The old camper storage trailer roof had begun to leak in several places, and we had doubts about it holding four feet of snow in the winter, so we built a roof over it. Alright, another 200 square feet of roof to collect rainwater on, that's another 132 gallons every time we get an inch of rain!

The solar panel rack is mounted on a steel pipe that is attached with u-clamps to the side of the camper. We tightened the clamps enough to hold the panels from turning in a strong wind, but loose enough to be able to rotate the panels with a pipe wrench to follow the sun if we really are low on power on low angle sun days in the winter.

I finally had time to build wooden sides for a little utility trailer that we'd bought in Maine to help move our things in. The sides attach to the metal frame with quick release clevis pins, and the front and rear boards slide into wooden tracks. The back drops down for a ramp, which works great when you're using a wheelbarrow to load it.