Mary Ostler

By request. Setting up the mini yurt. A lot of images after the jump.

The yurt in it storage mode. Dogzilla decided to stop by for scale.

The door frame assembled. Two of the corners have fixed pins, the other have loose pin hinges.

The two door pieces placed into the frame, and the 6 loose hinge pins droped into place

Door Standing up (Note: I made the door open inward so I could place a board across the door panels. This gives me a shelf to place stuff on when I am cooking indoors.)

Roof beams, canvas, and ropes all nestled into the rolled up lattice. It all fits into a storage bag.

The lattice unrolled.

I have a drop cloth that I use to keep my floor material clean. It also helps with getting the lattice work roughly circular.

Lattice work stretched out.

Latice work tied to the door frame eyelets.

Rope belly band, and top rope tied inplace. Both are vital parts of the yurt.

The poles are placed evenly around the lattice work.

Climbing inside the yurt, attach three poles equal distance around the outside by slipping the roped edge over one of the end pieces. then put the end into one of the roof ring holes. If it doesn’t look even at this stage don’t worry. It will get better.

Walk around the outside and put the rest of the poles in place. Go back inside and tug down on the roof ring. A pole or two might fall out don’t worry, the roof ring should now look pretty evenly flat. Replace any poles that had fallen out.

I still haven’t sewn all the ties on to the canvas walls. I use bulldog clamps that fit over the canvas and top rope to keep it in place. I also tend to run the wall so that it covers the ends of the roof beams.

I then center the smoke hole over the roof ring and pull the edge over the ends.

After this I just put a couple of spikes into the ground and rope it down (always rope down your pavilions). I use these ropes to attach the smoke hole cover.

I also have so much furniture I place into the yurt, and the door way is a little low, I tend to pack it all in before I tie the lattice to the door frame. Larger yurts don’t really have that problem.

Hope that helps. Took about 15 minutes (includes photo time)

PS. Images of the knots

When making the yurt I used nylon rope. I tied a knot, threaded the unknoted end through the holes and then tied another knot with the two lattice pieces to gether as snug as I could get them. The rope has stretch in it and the gap adjustment will happen naturally. another one of the great thing about the lattice is if a section breaks you can cut the ropes and put a new section in without dissambling the rest of the yurt.