Did you know I lived in a yurt?

Well not now, but very recently. Before and during the construction of my little off-grid cottage that my husband and I built ourselves. Because we’d built, lived-in, and trouble shot a yurt. After that, building a house was a piece of cake!

Many people asked why we did this. Why would my husband and I sell our home, car, ATV, snowmobile, furniture, why donate over 90% of our belongings and move into a yurt, in Maine no less? You might be surprised, because the reasons are really not all that unique: debt, unhappiness, and lack of fulfillment with where we found ourselves in life. What was unique was our solution.

Yes, a yurt.

Okay, some of you might be wondering what a yurt is. A yurt like the one we built and lived in is like a VERY large tent (ours had a 24′ diameter) with a very light wooden framework. I always described it as being like the tent in Harry Potter that is bigger on the inside than out and contains oriental carpets and really nice furniture as well as a fireplace. Yup, that was our home. We had antiques, carpets, and a wood stove. All in less than 500 square feet of space … none of which was actually square!

It was such an adventure that I had to write a book about it (of course)! And that book was just released this week. So I wanted to take a minute to introduce you to A Year in a Yurt: An Adventurous Memoir of Off-Grid Living Full of Practical Advice. Because really, if you want to shake up your life it is always best to see what people have tried before you!

So join my husband and I as we strive to achieve our dream of becoming debt free by drastically altering our lifestyle and building a low cost, DIY yurt. A Year in a Yurt follows us as beginners while we tackle our first year from construction through a snowy Maine winter in our tiny house while we battle insects, heat, cold, and occasionally each other in a search for freedom through living in an alternative, solar home. Learn from our decisions made to solve a multitude of problems from solar installation, types of toilets, what to cook on, how to plumb an indoor shower, and more as we strive not just to survive but to be prosperous and self sufficient in our new homesteading lives.

The book is full of photos with more available online through a link in the book. Because it was one thing to live in a yurt during a snowy winter, but it was even better to thoroughly document it!

So if you’ve secretly ever wanted to upend your life in order to make some drastic changes (whether or not you ever thought about living in a yurt in a place it snows for five months of the year) or if you are in the midst of making plans for a yurt of your own, this book is for you!

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