Our Story

Welcome to Little Foot Yurts!

We’re Alex and Selene Cole, and live and work in Mi’kma’ki, the traditional territory of the Mi’kmaq people. We are grateful to call Sikunme’katik (Gaspereau Valley, Nova Scotia) our home, where we have been blessed with a beautiful property that encompasses both forest and field.

This stunning landscape has provided the perfect backdrop for our home-based business, which includes a yurt manufacturing barn and textile rooms. It has not only allowed us to develop and grow our business but also to raise our children in an environment rich with natural beauty.

I love all my roles at LFY! I sew the yurt coverings, manage client and booking communications, oversee the website and social media, and design marketing materials. When I'm done with textile projects and the daily operations of running the business, I enjoy gardening, camping, and hiking with friends.

I love all my roles at LFY! I craft the yurt frames, manage tent installation and maintenance, and oversee stretch tent sales. When I'm not busy setting up tents, I enjoy sailing, cruising on my motorcycle, and jamming to reggae music.

How we got Started

We are two passionate entrepreneurs with a love for working with our hands.

Our journey began in the early 2000s whilst living at Coed Hills Rural Artspace in South Wales, a sustainable living and creative arts center. It was there that we learned to build yurts, tipis, straw bale buildings, and helped work on The Roundhouse Project , a traditional Celtic round house built with phragmites reed on the roof and earthen plaster on the walls. Coed Hills has since transformed into Coed Weddings, an alternative wedding venue.

The community, particularly the creative vision of Rawley Clay, ignited our passion for sustainable living - both ecologically and socially -ultimately inspiring us to create Little Foot Yurts.

Shortly after arriving in Nova Scotia, we began building a yurt to pursue our newfound passion, which attracted a wonderful community of friends and supporters. At that time, I (Selene) was working at the Sierra Club of Canada and taking pattern construction courses at the Nova Scotia College of Art & Design, while Alex was an apprentice carpenter.

We soon realized that we could combine our skills in textiles and green woodworking to create yurts—our first home in Wales!

Our new friends supported our yurt-building dream, and one neighbor even allowed us to attach a steam box to his garage to steam the yurt poles.

Our Mission & Craft

Fast forward a few decades, and we have made our passion into a small yet thriving business with a mission to enhance outdoor celebrations with our handcrafted yurts and stylish stretch tents. Since 2005, we have been providing unique shelter experiences all over the Maritime provinces.

Every yurt we craft comes from years of dedication. Each pole is carefully collected by hand, carved, and oiled annually to maintain its beauty and integrity. Our commitment to ongoing maintenance ensures that every yurt remains stunning and ready for our clients to enjoy.

At the heart of our rental & sales service is a commitment to connecting personally with our clients. We take the time to understand each client's wedding, special event, or business needs through emails and calls, leading to an in-person meeting during setup. This collaborative approach ensures we bring our clients' visions to life effectively.

At the core of our business, we are passionate about traditional building techniques, such as using hand tools like the billhook and drawknife, steam-bending wood, and using a froe to split our ash yurt wheels.

We embrace a sustainable business model that incorporates natural materials, including cotton canvas for our yurts—making us the only business in North America to do so—felted wood for insulation, and coconut husk fibre for our flooring.

Additionally, we practice coppicing, a traditional woodland management method that involves cutting trees to ground level to encourage new shoots for sustainable wood production.

To further enhance the outdoor experience, we also offer stretch tent sales to businesses looking to increase their outdoor seating capacity.

The dynamic stretch tent provides exceptional adaptability, fitting into spaces where traditional tents can't, such as terraces and slopes. Customizable for various settings, it features a modular design for easy expansion. Made from durable, waterproof materials, they are designed to withstand harsh weather, making them ideal for the Maritime regions.

Together, our handcrafted yurts and high-quality stretch tents create unique outdoor experiences that celebrate community and connection.

Design & Production

We are builders of Nova Scotia coppice wood yurts, inspired by the traditional Kyrgyz and Mongolian style yurts. We build our yurts using traditional techniques, making each one a unique work of art.

As non-indigenous individuals, we approach crafting yurts and working with other structures such as tipis and stretch tents with profound respect for the cultures that have nurtured these forms for generations. Our love for these dwellings stems from their practical brilliance and the sense of spiritual connection they evoke when we're inside. Their surprising strength, durability, and the natural and sustainable way they are created is a testament to their ingenuity.

Our yurts feature the ancient design with one third more roof poles than modern alternatives.

We are the only yurt producer using breathable natural membranes; cotton canvas and felt insulation.

The natural materials used at Little Foot Yurts; wood, wool & coconut husk fibre.

Our yurts do not use complicated fixtures and fittings.

Demonstrating the strength of a steam bent ash yurt wheel.

Each piece is individually steam bent which is the only way to create a circle wall trellis with this kind of strength.

Green wood working tools are used to fashion our yurts.

The froe is a simple and ancient tool used to bring round wood into usable dimensions.

Ash planks ready to come out of the steam box.

The complete fibres of a steam bent wheel provide an almost unbreakable circle.

This ancient technique of burning the mortices creates a perfect hole that can fit every pole.

The wood is hardened and cured by the heat.

Heating up one of our branding symbols for labelling wooden components.

Hand branded symbols create a simple guide to assembling our yurts. (Copy)

The strongest and most sacred part of the yurt: the wheel. (Copy)

The French seam is used in all of our joins. (Copy)

Sewing a yurt roof cover involves many meters of french seams!

Setting brass spur grommets into a roof cover.

Our windows have a super-clear plastic material with an exterior canvas flap.

Our business label confirming our covers meet Canadian fire standards.

Textiles production requires yurts to be set up within yurts.

Coppicing, a traditional woodland management method, involves cutting trees to ground level, encouraging new shoots for future harvests.

Red maple is Little Foot Yurts preferred roof pole.

Using a billhook, the ancient tool of the coppice worker.

Red maple tree cleaned and prepared for regrowth with love.

Removed by hand and foot. The practice of coppicing is one of the lowest impact forestry techniques.

Unloading coppice poles back at LFY.

From simple stick to finished yurt pole!

From simple stick to elegant wedding yurt!

Terri-Lynn Warren Photography

Our small sheep flock provides fiber for felt panels, protein, life and death lessons, grassland management, and companionship.

Lambing is always a special time at Little Foot Yurts!

We have a natural spring in our pasture which gives our sheep water in most months.

Onlookers await their turn to be sheared.

Before & after!

Reasy to send to our local mill to get processed into felt panels.

The construction of felt panels in the textiles room.

Feeling the warmth and softness of the wool whilst I sew is a real treat!

The completed felt panels are ready to help keep a yurt warm!

Felt panels are the traditional covering of yurts in Central Asia.

Hand splitting, steam bending and using round wood produces a strong and unique frame.
Ancient building techniques such as hand splitting with a froe, steam bending green wood and using tools such as a billhook produce a strong and unique yurt frame.
Coppicing, a traditional woodland management method, involves cutting trees to ground level, encouraging new shoots for future harvests and promoting sustainable wood production.
This age-old practice in Europe yields various wood products like firewood, fencing, and furniture.
Beyond the economic benefits, coppice development helps restore woodland health, especially after severe logging. This low-impact harvesting method enhances soil stability and ground-level habitats, contributing to increased biodiversity.
We are proud to use breathable natural membranes; cotton canvas and felt insulation. The benefits include significantly less condensation, no off gassing, more aesthetically pleasing, lighter, and easier to repair. Multiple layers of semi-permeable membranes ensures 100% weather protection.
Felt panels are the traditional yurt covering of Central Asia. Extremely durable and hard wearing they provide a natural, breathable insulation. The felt panels are enclosed by the cotton canvas to protect it from the weather.
Our yurts use the traditional central Asian design, which gives you one third more roof poles than modern style yurt companies.
Our yurts do not use complicated fixtures or fittings. The roof pole end fits into a burnt mortice hole and uses high quality locally made dacron rope for the loop on the opposite end.

Our Trip to Kyrgyzstan

With over a decade of experience as yurt builders, we embarked on a journey to Kyrgyzstan in 2010 to deepen our cultural understanding of the people who create and still live in yurts. During our time there, we immersed ourselves in yurt living, learning from felt artisans in textile design and yurt masters in frame creation.

Kyrgyzstan Blog