Yurt Vs. Rain

Progress has been slow in getting our next home established.  We were hoping to be in the yurt by mid-June, but with weather delays we are looking like we will be in it, barely, by the first of July when we need to vacate our current rental.  Over the last two weeks, our frustrations are expressed occasionally, in exasperated tones as we check the weather forecast only to see that every day is all rain, all the time.  While we don't consider ourselves fair weather people, we truly love a good snowstorm or rain shower, the mud has infiltrated our spirits like the onset of a bad cold.  All of my life I've heard the phrase:  "if you don't like the weather in Montana, just wait five minutes, it'll change."  While this theory is very true in the mountains, the phrase is true anywhere you go.  Mark Twain said, "The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco."
My husband enjoys the changes and has even mentioned between bouts of frustration that he loves that it is sunny one minute, cloudy and windy the next, and very shortly after it's hailing from clouds being separated by more sun.  This weather schizophrenia is exhausting to me.  I just wish that it would stay the same for the length of the day.  In this objective, planning can be established early on, and all preparations can be made with the utmost thought for the days activities.
Being that the weather is something that we are all exposed to, it is interesting to read what others think of it.
"Let the rain kiss you.  Let the rain beat upon your head with silver liquid drops.  Let the rain sing you a lullaby."  ~Langston Hughes

"Among famous traitors of history one might mention the weather"  ~Ilka Chase
I'd hate to think that the weather was conspiring against us, as this seems foolish. 
On a regular day, when I didn't have a deadline for when my living status would appropriate homelessness, I could be heard saying something similar to this:
"Sunshine is delicious, rain is refreshing, wind braces us up, snow is exhilarating; there is really no such thing as bad weather, only different kinds of good weather"  ~John Ruskin

Most of the time, in having a career in talking with people I just met, this is truer still:
"Don't knock the weather; nine-tenths of the people couldn't start a conversation if it didn't change once in a while."  ~Kin Hubbard
Which makes me realize how thankful I am that I do live in a place with four seasons.  Even if some of the seasons are way shorter or longer than in other places.  I wonder how bored I would be if the weather never did change.


This being said, Tanner was a trooper this week, and spent plenty of time making incredible progress on our home site despite the weather.  Two days were spent putting in concrete supports, which hold the pillars to the yurt platform.

Tanner digging his first concrete support

Buddy, supervising

 Our concern with all of the rain, is that by placing the pillars while the ground is so saturated, we would have an unstable support when the yurt is complete.  The glacier silt that is our ground, makes for a very spongy surface when wet, but when it dries it will be like concrete!  Since the platform was draining the water sufficiently, Tanner decided to continue on.  There were 22 concrete supports total, all dug by hand.

The first pillars are up

Coming along.  Diagonal supports are holding the pillars square until the top of the platform is in place.

All done

Looking Vertical!!!

Again, this is just the platform that the yurt will sit on.  We have decided to make it  6.5ft tall to accommodate dry storage for things we need that won't fit in the yurt.  We will have an insulated pillar within encasing the water heater and pump.  
Tanner worked a couple of long days, getting sprinkled on, proving that "Bad weather always looks worse through a window" ~Tom Lehrer  I love this, because it is so true.  With the proper attitude and clothing, all weather is tolerable, and quite enjoyable.  The weather is something so much larger than ourselves, uncontrollable, and it's a great feeling when one can overcome it.
Ultimately, our quote for this project and with all that we do would be:
"A change in the weather is sufficient to recreate the world and ourselves"  ~Marcel Proust

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