American Yurts for American Homeland Security?

At Homeland Security, No Money Left Behind

By Dana Milbank

Wednesday, April 12, 2006; Page A02

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/04/11/AR2006041101397.html?sub=AR

"Vendors at this week's homeland security convention have the answer for any catastrophe. They will sell you body armor, vehicle barriers, nuclear detectors, manhole-cover locks, unmanned helicopters -- and Kyrgyz yurts."

Why didn't Milbanks mention American Yurt manufacturers, like Spirit Mountain, Rainer, Pacific, Nomad Shelters, etc? Mongolian gers are lovely, but hey.. we make them here in the good ole USA too. Maybe the Department of U.S. Homeland Security would prefer to use U.S. tax dollars to purchase U.S. made products for U.S. disaster victims. Plus, Milbanks' article says a 14 foot high yurt is $10,000 (which tells me nothing of the floor space) and U.S. made 14 foot yurts start around $5000.00 (and of course emergency GERTEES can be made out of scraps and a couple hundred bucks).

GERTEE December 21, 2007.. still standing!

Nord and Freddie waiting for the fire to get going.

Our woodstove burns out after about 4 hours. Now we just learned that a smaller stack, like a 3 inch wide one, would make it last TWICE as long!!! Funny how many things there are we still don't know. We can't wait to try the battery idea we learned from the Mad Hausers, and now Daniel's working on a design to bring cold air in to feed the fire through an "ice box" that makes an inside freezer/fridge. Like Nord said the first time she saw me modify the tent over in Hannsville, WA, "Wow, necessity really is the mother of invention, huh mom?"

I'm getting some notes together for "cooking on a woodstove" since so many visitors are coming in for that search. Seems I'm not the only person who wants to know how it's done. I do all my baking in metal stovetop containers, and I think it's a good thing to know how to do. But, my dream is someday I'll have a real wood cookstove in our cookshackgertee, and I'll fill Gerteeville with the smell of baking bread and cookies! It's been just too cool to look at this gertee through Nordica's eyes, and her contributions to organizing an 18 foot wide space to accomodate 2 adults and one child are invaluable. This is both of our first time living in one, and we absolutely love it in spite of the freezing mornings (which happen to people with cabins and houses too.. duh) . We really had to spend time inside it to know how it wraps around you like a mother holding a child.

We've found a local interior designer, she's a daughter of a great gal I worked with at Tonsina last year, and we can't wait to see what kinds of fabrics and sewing ideas she brings. The idea of GerTee is to encourage people to become inspired by the simple, ancient way to design and make their own space, and lately we've seen a lot of interest in the concept.

It's "sustainable."And, for those who are wondering, a fully equipped (plumbed to code and elect, etc) yurt is approved by HUD. Ger/yurts/GERTEES can be anything from an overnight playhouse-tent to a luxurious full scale home with ALL the modern amenities. The KEY is you can build one based entirely on your budget. Gers can be made from ALL scrap materials if necessary, just look at the pictures of disasters, see all that scrap lumber, windows, doors and curtains laying in heaps.. much of it that's not too water damaged is useable.

Nord wants to design a kid's gertee with rainbow roof beams and padded walls and floors. I want a grandma gertee with lots of room for sewing projects. What kind of gertee do you want to build? We're building gravel tent pads on the back part of the property this spring for our friends who want to come up this summer and build their own. Come visit us in GerTeeville. We'll show you how to make a 14 footer to take home with you for under $500. If there's a lot of interest I'll plan a building seminar-music and arts festival for late August, 2008. We'll open the first live Primitivwerks Bazaar and invite handcrafters from around the world to come show us how to make things. We're into it.