Yurt platform ready for yurt!
Thursday, September 17th, 2009Only 10 minutes’ worth of laptop battery power left so very short post … but the yurt platform is now ready for the yurt. Yurt-raising on Saturday.
Posts Tagged ‘yurt platform’
So near and yet so far
Sunday, July 5th, 2009I figured if I got an early enough start, timed it right to get the drill battery charged up at the café down in Benfeita (LuÃs having already generously offered use of the café’s electricity supply for charging all our stuff), and worked at it efficiently and quickly, I might just get the platform finished the day we had to leave for Scotland again. We weren’t getting the flight until 21:15 out of Porto, and Porto’s only 2 hours away, so …
Help!
Friday, July 3rd, 2009We’d been on at Andy & Sophie to come and see our quinta since the day we shook hands on the deal last November. Somehow they were either always too busy, or we were. But this time it looked like it finally might happen. I’d texted to say there was a possibility I might have the platform ready for the yurt the day they were coming, but I wasn’t putting 2 and 2 together when I got a text from Andy to say 9 of them were arriving with lunch. Expecting only a social occasion, I was even thinking to myself “Damn, well I’ll not get much work done on the platform today then …”
I’d already realised I hadn’t made a big enough wastage allowance in my calculations, so had ordered up a dozen more lengths of flooring in the morning to collect from the woodyard in Coja at 4pm. This was going to eat into my construction time too.
Floored
Friday, July 3rd, 2009Yesterday I’d forgotten I’d had a rare brainstorm with the amazing good sense to pack a variety-pack of disposable batteries for emergencies. I remembered them this morning, in time to record the beginnings of the yurt platform floor laying. And one of the noggins …
Another good day's work
Wednesday, July 1st, 2009Another great day for working with the weather being so conducive I’m having a hard time believing it. After decades in Scotland where the weather has an inate perversity and invariably ends up doing the exact opposite to what you’re hoping and praying it will, this is a rare treat.
There should be a photo, but the camera’s run out of batteries and the spares are flat (??? I’m sure I charged them before we left), but the yurt platform is now noggined! Thanks for the advice Rick. They make all the difference. Just a couple more to fit in the morning. Undersides of all the floorboards are all oiled and so am I. Caught the floorboards just in time. They’d been stacked one on top of each other to keep them flat, but in common with the speed that everything else grows in this climate, so does mould. The sawdust still coating the green timber boards was providing a fertile breeding ground for mildew as the boards sweated in the heat, so some of our flooring will have a slightly spalted look to it.
So we’re almost ready to go with laying the floor.
Yurt platform structure complete … well almost
Tuesday, June 30th, 2009Another good day. Starting at 6.30am, constructed the last pillar of tyres, completed the drainage ditch round the circumference, shifted all the main beams into place (thanks to Pete and Pavlik for giving us a hand with those) with plastic sheeting between tyres and wood to provide a moisture barrier, put first coat of petrol/used engine oil mix on remaining beams and second coat of undiluted engine oil on them all, and cut noggins from our stack off offcuts from the woodyard.
Yurt platform progress day … um, what day is it?
Saturday, June 27th, 2009Yesterday was another reasonably cool day and I made great progress. Today has been warmer so worked from 6am to midday only and then took a break. Only 2 supporting pillars left to construct and two of the main beams in place. Drainage channel round the circumference partly complete.
Yurt platform progress
Thursday, June 25th, 2009We’ve been dead lucky with the cooler weather. Though today went a bit far and I ended up working in waterproofs. Hey ho, just another Scottish summer …
The yurt platform
Tuesday, June 23rd, 2009We’ve got a good start into the main project for this trip — getting the yurt installed.
The wood arrived two days after we did from the local woodyard in Coja.
