the sketchbook...

...and the construction site

THE SKETCHBOOK

These three pages from my sketchbook are the only ones I’ve added in the last two months. I sat on the back porch by myself for 20 minutes while the dog had a good sniffing-about and I let myself draw whatever came to mind. Sometimes the sketchbook is magic, and this time it really, really was. I’d been feeling out of sorts for a while (two months, perhaps…? ahem), and far away from my creative voice, and of course just sitting down with a pen for a few minutes put me right at ease. Was it so hard!?

Also, what is it about drawing Mme. Josephine and Her Creature of Night Clothilde that connects me with my deeper sense of self!? Caw Caw.

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THE CONSTRUCTION SITE

“CHERT”, a study in typographic rhythm, or, “shall I moonlight as a graffiti writer?”, or, the name of our yurt.

This spring, summer, stretching-into-fall, my partner Ben and I have been building a yurt from scratch.

It’s name is Chert the Yurt, and its final destination is a small natural clearing in the boreal forest of northern Minnesota on a parcel of land owned by our beloved and generous friends.

Me, resting my weary buns on a well-leveled footing, surrounded by spruce, aspen, birch, ferns, fungi, and a just a few moss-covered hubcaps.

The platform as of yesterday (we put in a huge work weekend up north). Next steps: insulation and plywood flooring.

We started the build this spring after Ben took a yurt-building class at North House Folk School taught by Ian Andrus, and we’ve been working off of the copious notes and photographs Ben took during that week to build Chert. We’ve got a tiny budget, so we’ve been as resourceful as we can: some of the platform structure was salvaged from a friend’s old deck, some bought cheap from our neighborhood lumber reclaimer Lumberstash, windows were sourced from the Better Futures Warehouse in South Minneapolis, chimney pipe from K-bid, a gorgeous enamel wood stove from fb marketplace… on and on. A good challenge.

Most of our spare moments since May have been dedicated (eaten alive) by Chert.

Bending the ash lattice strips on bending racks, after soaking them in hot water for a couple days. The most beautiful part of the process!

Lattice strips post-bending, post-oiling, and a small percentage of the rafters (pictured right) mid-oil.

The really cute sauna door that we salvaged, added trim to, widened, shortened, shored up, and then realized we had made too heavy…

Door #2, built from scratch with pine and some spare plexiglass Ben had leftover from grad school. Painted with “grape juice” color, hehe.

We’re getting close to the final construction! Our goal has been to complete the yurt by winter, which is right around the corner for Northern Minnesota. My spare time in the coming weeks will be dedicated to tying the 1400 knots that hold the lattice together, which then become the walls of the yurt (see the beginnings below). Ben found an industrial sail-sewing machine on marketplace that he’ll use to sew the canvas yurt covering.

Tying the lattice knots. Each knot requires extreme tension, so it gets tightened twice by a wrench and a strong(ish) hand.

Ben and I have dreamed about having a place in the woods since the beginning of our partnership many, many years ago. So this is really a dream come true for us, thanks to our pals. We both get a huge amount of joy and fulfillment from being in the wilderness, and to have a place of our own from which to access the Boundary Waters is extremely special.

Cannot wait to set eyes upon SO MANY MORE delightful forms of fungus. This special little log is in Chert’s backyard.

More Chert to come.

Thanks for joining me today!

xoxo