So, I guess we're done with our "yurt experience." Not the way we had planned. Thursday, Feb 18, we had a creosote fire in our chimney and were lucky to get out intact. Pretty much everything went up in flames. We were still hauling water (which I actually have found that many people in this area have done while building), so did not have a hose to even try to put it out--although it went up so fast I don't believe it would have done any good to even try. Even after more than a week we still find ourselves thinking about something, then catching ourselves and saying, "Oh, yeah, we don't have that anymore." With all the stuff we lost, I believe the things we miss the most are memoirs--things that cannot be replaced, such as items Charles inherited from his Mother--books, photos, musical instruments, etc., and things that once belonged to my Dad--banjo, hat, hammer, etc. and items that were given to us by my children and other family members and friends. We will eventually be able to replace many items such as furniture, the piano, other musical instruments, the camera (although not the pictures that were on it), my glasses, the cell phone, etc. And in fact there has been such an outpouring of caring from friends and family, and even total strangers, that it fills my heart to overflowing with gratitude! We have received offers of places to stay, donations of food and clothing and other items, even a nice 5th wheel to live in while we rebuild, a storage building, and a wood cookstove! We have been so blessed!!
Anyway, photos of the fire are below. I really do wish I could have saved the camera--it had probably a hundred or more photos on it of more of the progress of the house. We had just finished the outside wall and window of the bathroom, put in a door and three windows downstairs and three windows upstairs in the back rooms, finished most of the downstairs floor and all of the upstairs floor, and most of the outside walls. I had photos of the kids who came over and helped put in the fiberglass insulation in the downstairs walls and some of the outside walls. We had just built several storage shelves, and had a beautiful partition for the upstairs "dunny." But that's all academic now--it served it's purpose and now we're going to move on to the next stage (Charles wants to rebuild, but this time out of concrete--or maybe papercrete, earthbags, earthship, or something that won't burn, as he puts it). It will take some time, money, and a lot more hard work--we had about $3-to-4,000 plus a lot of scrounged materials in the last home. I guess we'd better start saving now. Maybe I'll start a new album . . . ;)
THE END
View from underneath.
There is a drop of a couple of feet from the front deck to the back deck.
Looking down from the other way.
Some teen-age friends showed up to help with the roof of the back deck.
Eliza and Trazer nailing 1 x 2's on the roof.
Joe volunteered to cut the ends off with the chainsaw.
Covering the finished roof.
Starting on the floor of the lower back rooms. We used fiberglass bat insulation. There are two live trees going up through the floor and the upper roof.
After the top layer of flooring was nailed down. A big wind came up and scattered pine needles all around--just trying to add to the forest theme, I guess.
Live tree between the bathroom and small bedroom.
