Upgrading the inside roof of a 20 foot gertee

Practicing making a nicer interior

Looks more like the inside of a parasol now!
Tore down all the insulation and it was cold last night!
Will need to make a new insulated roof this fall.

Added 16" striped yellow/burgandy to walls.

Stapled fabrics and lace to lattice and ceiling beams

Each 20 to 40 yard piece was only $1 on ebay!

Winterizing a 20 foot yurt for 40 below (F and C)

First model gertee waits for spring rescue

RadiantGUARD roof insulation

Extra layers along the walls and floor

It's been getting down to 20 below F. every night and it was freezing in here even with a roaring fire and the fan on. This new yurt is sitting on a 20x24 foot wooden platform with no insulation and was originally designed to be used as a summer museum at Camp Redington. I moved in here at the end of the summer. I've had some serious challenges, what with the big wind and the foot of leaking snow, but I think I've managed to avert any future crises in these areas. One thing is for sure, these little huts were absolutely designed to stand up to the wind. I have a lot more confidence after that last big storm. It blew shingles off people's roofs around here and sent some pretty big things flying across yards. Everytime I run into one of the old locals out here they make sure I know they noticed I didn't blow away. (They notice I have wood now too.)

The RadiantGUARD arrived and changed everything. I order it direct from the manufacturer in Texas. It cost me $129.00 for 1000 square feet plus $20 S&H. There is nothing comparable on the local market and I made sure I looked. Insulation is VERY expensive normally so this stuff is a real find. Once on the ceiling it warmed up 10 degrees at face level, but then the cold air rerouted itself downward and came hissing across the floor and froze my feet. So next I put a layer of RG along the walls and floor and then covered it with another 18 inch wide layer of wool (the ironing board covers we got from the military). Next I'll cut pieces of carpet and secure the edges. It's already amazingly warmer inside tonight (14 below outside at 9pm) and it's incentive to keep working on this cumbersome job. I feel like I've been building and rearranging for over 2 years, because I have. And of course we'll be moving it somewhere else after break-up.

Now I think I understand how to layer the materials, even though I still can't do it properly since everything outside is frozen stiff. Put the RG on top of the ceiling beams (rather than slide it under the beams like last winter) so there's an inch or so of air space behind it. Now the outside roof covers will stay frozen until spring so there shouldn't be any more leaks. The key is (for those like me who didn't know this already) is to make sure the outer layer of the roof stays the same temperature on both sides. Then, ideally I would have a layer of plastic on the inside of the RG (for a vapor barrier) and another layer of materials over that. I'm going to just cover the RG on the roof with a patchwork of materials I cut up or find. In the spring I'll try to get the new roof tarp up before it gets warm enough to melt and drip through again.

The ACL is ready for Trick-or-treaters!"

first of the recycled RG going up on the roof

Laying up sheets of RG, attached with 1/2 inch staples

I have one more layer to put up over the RG because they say it can combust if there's direct sunlight on it and I'm assuming there's some degree of danger from the woodstove heat too. So if anyone has access to 3 to 20 yards pieces of materials (felt and wool will hold more heat but any fabrics I get are going up) then we'd sure appreciate your sending them to us USPS Parcel Post or Priority Mail which is the cheapest way for most shipped items out here. UPS can be outrageous! My mailing adress here is:

Niki Raapana
HC 60 Box 326-A
Copper Center, AK 99573, USA

My blessings come in the most unusual ways. I'm pleased to say that Philip Jones and I have not only reconciled my angry reaction to his articles, in the course of working things out we've found we share the same basic reasons for doing our work. He's a very nice man and I'm honored to say we have another contributor to 2020, the next time we go to print it will include a British/Danish/European perspective. I'll also make pdf copies of the additions and make it available to everyone who has already purchased a previous edition.

We're working on Jack's book again, and I think we may just be warm and comfortable enough to relax and work on it together, in peaceful harmony. Heh. We love his book idea and it inspires me to think about the ways this work has changed my life, and what it does to the soul.

Authentic Mongolian Yurt for sale on ebay for 1050?!?!?

Live in the US Midwest? Local pick-up only, in Ohio. This could be a fantastic deal on a 20 foot Mongolian yurt. Right now it's going for $1025.00. I can't make one for less than that. Don't need one yourself but want to make a fabulous donation to the ACL? This would make a great gift. You could buy it now and drive it up to us as soon as the roads clear. We'll set it up and make it into an authentic Alaskan modification. :)
http://cgi.ebay.com/Authentic-Mongolian-Ger-Yurt-with-handpainted-door_W0QQitemZ160293949712QQcmdZViewItem?hash=item160293949712&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=72%3A1205%7C66%3A2%7C65%3A12%7C39%3A1%7C240%3A1318

Covering a 20 foot Alaskan "home" gertee

Last winter I lived in an 18 foot gertee with my daughter and her newborn. This year we're in a 20 footer that looks and feels a lot more like the modern American yurts we've seen only in pictures. To purchase one of these new costs over ten grand, we made ours for 1/10th of that.

Put the last of the RadiantGuard at the floor level where a lot of hot air escapes. I put it on the roof of the 18 footer and the other morning with no fires in either one, the small RadiantGuard covered gertee was 42 degrees and the 20 footer with the 4 foot roofwindow was 62 degrees. The sunroof lets in a lot of light and I'm hoping I don't have to recover it. A new bubble dome window cover costs about $600. Our recycled plexiglass version is flat but it was free.

The best thing about gertees is once you have a workable roofring and frame it can be covered with just about anything. Our 20 foot model is still covered in canvas and the roof is a 30' tarp pool cover with a parachute liner. This all held up extremely well over the coldest and wettest summer I've ever seen in AK. Anticipating 50 below or colder, I've added RadiantGuard insulation and used wool military ironing board covers to the inside walls and floor. (I love this material and wish I could get on a donation list for Army posts who throw it away.)

I also added plastic windows that were part of a tent liner I bought at Second Chance on Spenard in Anchorage last time we went to town. They have a lot of good stuff but it's mostly overpriced; I had to dicker hard and I still paid too much.

We've transformed the 20 foot gertee "museum" into our personal work space. The difference between the new one (20 feet across with 6 1/2 ft walls) and the first model (18 foot across with 5 foot walls) we lived in for the past year is amazing. We think a 24 footer will be spectacular.

6' water and dishes shelf/room divider.
This started as an old chainsaw made table I got from Rick. First I cleaned it up with white paint. Since I wanted to hang the Sun Showers over my dish sink area, I used my chainsaw and modified it the same way I did my minis (it's my first full sized mini).

New kitchen/LR entryway.
Found the pile of tiles in Tim's "junk" lot, it works on the countertop and entryway floor.

Nightime inside the new kitchen

Just was told our forest firefighter friend saved me a whole box of used emergency fireproof pup tents. He says the material is a lot like the RadiantGuard, only thicker. Oh happy day! Anybody want one before I cut them up?

Thank goodness we finally have an office set up that actually works for us, and stays warm. We're back on track with a whole month before it gets below freezing. I am determined to make it out here through another winter and I think this beautiful larger space will make it just a little bit nicer, for all of us. The roof is the only thing that worries me so I'm gonna cut down an 11 foot diamond willow tree and use it as a main post, then I'll work off it to frame in a loft bedroom over the office. I'll be adding more materials as they arrive.

Donations are always welcome. I could really use more real insulation, bolts of fabric, throw rugs and old sheets and bedspreads. Down comforters would be awesome; after 6 years in the same sleeping bag it fell apart at the zipper and I'm ready for something new. Sure wish I knew how to make quilts. Please send your kind donations to us at HC60 Box 326-A, Copper Center, AK 99573.

Almost the only place the global communitarian system is openly discussed is in upper academia, international law schools and newly established EU national transition agencies. Regardless of 3 EU nation's voter rejections of the EU Constitution, the globalist's regionalization agenda moves forward as planned. Remember, the EU is the MODEL for the Middle Eastern Union, the African Union, the Asian Union and of course the North and South American Unions.

This just came in on the NYU Jean Monnet law school elist:

Scott Siegel, "Courts and Compliance in the European Union: The European Arrest Warrant in National Constitutional Courts"

(JMWP no. 05/08)

"The member states of the European Union have expanded the tools they use to cooperate in combating transnational crime and terrorism. Chief among these is the Framework Decision on the European Arrest Warrant, which requires judicial and police authorities to bypass all national extradition procedures involving suspects residing in an EU member state. Only Germany, Poland, Italy, and the Republic of Cyprus experienced severe delays in implementing the required national legislation. Contrary to the expectations of veto players theory, national constitutional courts do not veto EU law, but instruct legislatures on how best to redraft legislation, securing compliance.

"We invite you to access this Working Paper on the Jean Monnet Center website at www.jeanmonnetprogram.org."

GERTEE means "at home" in Mongolian!

For months Nordica has been looking for a "formal" translation of the word gertee. She's seen it used to imply it meant "at home." But she couldn't locate it in a dictionary for me, and so, being the picky researcher that I am, I wouldn't use it. But now I can! This is really an amazing discovery for me. I combined construction concepts for a ger and a teepee to create a "gertee." A ger uses a roofring-poles-lattice walls=tension, a teepee/tipi uses leaning long poles and an inside liner that creates an upward draft/smoke flow allowing for an open, interior fire. In my first gertee design I considered making a short teepee and putting it on top of ger's lattice walls because I didn't know how to make a roofring. I still think it would work in an emergency.

Many thanks to author Radigan Neuhalfen, www.TheSteppe.com:

In Mongolian, "ger" means "home."

"Gert" is "ger" declined to mean "at home." The concluding doubled vowel simply adds emphasis: "gert" and "gertee" both mean "at home."

So, "gertee" is not really a thing in Mongolian, but a grammatical construction. Incidentally, this Mongolian "e" (in Cyrillic, a very different letter) is pronounced like a Scottish long clipped "a," such as in "nae." Doubled vowels are pronounced the same as the single vowel, but sounded longer in speech. The pronunciation of "gertee" is approximately "gaer-taeae."

Photos of standard models from Mongol Yurt
http://www.mongolyurt.mn/en/yourtegb.html#yurt

Just the frame.

The Mongolians make beautiful doors, don't they?

These kids are from Nomin2007's photo blog.

Mongolian interiors are usually very colorful.

Mongol Yurt's roofrings are way larger than mine.

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.