Stephane Albert – Cap-au-Renard, Quebec
In 2008, I was a sunburn university drop out in quest of real rural living, of connecting with living natural cycles. Mid-winter browsing through the woofing catalog, I found Little Foot Yurts. Called them up and we set out an apprenticeship to start early March. The day before my planned arrival, I pulled a ligament in my knee while sliding. Ended up recovering for a month in Montreal, at Marie-Anne’s apartment. Its then that we went from flirters to lovers.
No more cane in hand, I finally headed to the Gaspereau Valley for 3 months, from late winter into early summer. Selene, Alex and their baby Yara where wonderful and so welcoming. Learned a ton about building and working with my hands, which I wasn’t too good at yet. It was my first contact with homesteaders. In my last weeks there, Marie-Anne joined and we sewed a tipi canvas together with Selene and Alex helping advice.
That summer, we worked on the Gaspe North Shore in Quebec and lived in her new tipi. In fall, Marie-Anne was finishing her last year at the National School of Theater and I couldn’t imagine living in Montreal but couldn’t imagine being too far from her either. Her uncle lent me his shack in a beautiful hardwood forest, 4 km from the plowed road of Mansonville in the Eastern Townships, about 2 hours from Montreal in a car.
I had a bucksaw, a billhook, a drawknife, a drill, a hatchet, clamps and lots of time. I spent the winter contemplating, carrying water and slowly building a yurt frame. A 16 footer. I decided on that size so it could fit into a small vehicle. All maple, birch and beech saplings.
The crown was made of white ash, split in half with an axe and hand made wooden pegs. It was steamed in a flue pipe connected to a big pot of water on a fire. It was bended with lots of clamps on a jig, just plywood with pieces of wood screwed in. It wasn’t well done, had a bunch of serious cracks. I ended up building another two years later with white birch split the same way but bended on an old agricultural wheel, which works a lot better. This time I used an old tractor tire grip for a gasket on the flue pipe steamer, which worked pretty good.
Being on an extreme budget, I called and emailed every sailing club of West Montreal for used sails for our yurt cover. I sewed the sails in Marie-Anne’s apartment and did the measuring in the woods. It was not really practical nor ideal. Luckily spring came early and the road cleared fast. It worked! Well kind of… sails are large piece of material but they are not flat nor are they really waterproof, I learned later. They let UV and heat up a lot in summer. But it was free.
The yurt got installed for the first time around late April. A week latter I moved it to the Outaouais, where I worked a few months at an organic veggie farm. We spent the summer hitchhiking the Maritimes and then ran out of money in September. We moved into the yurt for about 6 weeks for the apple picking season in south-east New Brunswick. It fit snuggly into our Daewo Lanos (looks like a 2 door Honda Civic). The roof poles where almost right up against the windshield. Had a flat tire on the highway, had to take out the yurt to get at the spare tire and then put it all back in again! Tetris Round #2!
Latter that winter, we had a new cover sewn. To be honest, I did not enjoy sewing large piece of canvas so I decided to contract Atlantic Canvas in Moncton who had the right machines. They didn’t know what a yurt was though, so I did all the cutting, numbering and preparing. Basically, I told them, sow this piece to this one here. It took 3 sessions to have a custom fit as I was measuring on the yurt frame between sessions.
The next spring it was moved back to the Outaouais. Didn’t have a car, so I posted an add on Kijiji for a ride from Moncton to Montreal and it worked. A friend helped for the rest of the way. I lived in it from May till October, then again in spring. It served as Marie-Anne’s theater troup (www.ttemoin.com) headquarters while preparing their first play before we toured all summer.
Then we moved to the Gaspe…We stayed in it from October 2012 to January 2016.We loved the first two years but the last one was pushing it. 16 feet diameter is 200 square feet, that’s a pretty good test for a couple. Before that, we hadn’t lived in the same town for more than a few months at a time.
All in all we lived in the yurt for 48 months. Total cost around $1500, that’s $31,25 a month without wood, propane and a small off grid electrical installation. Let’s say about $100/month max all cost included. Now its about 30 feet from our hand built log home and it serves as housing for friends, family, workers who come help in my seaweed picking operation (www.varechphareest.com) and artists who collaborate with Marie-Anne’s theater company.
A yurt is the perfect housing solution for rural folks who are not yet settled on a piece of land. Also great for a studio, workshop or guesthouse. If you want to build one, get Paul King’s book, The Complete Yurt Handbook and take Little Foot Yurts workshop. It is a good accessible challenge for newbies of construction and a piece of cake for people with a little experience. Contrary to log building, there is no heavy lifting, so it is accessible to people of all ages and shapes. Or buy one of their yurts, they are a class apart in beauty, strength and durability.
Thank you Alex and Selene for the inspiration.