Yurt Raising: Day 2

Well, today went a whole heck of a lot slower than we expected.  Today we installed only a portion of the snow and wind kit.  Honestly, we thought we'd easily get that done and even get the yurt skinned.  Guess we were out of our minds to think that!

Suki came with us today.  Yesterday was a super long day for her and I didn't want her to have to repeat that.  The well drilling was done and we were done with carrying big and heavy things down to the site.  She was a very good yurt raising groupie.

So, the snow and wind kit is for places that have a lot of one or the other or both.  In our case, we don't generally get a lot of snow, but winds can be fierce at times.  It seemed a good idea to go ahead and get the kit to be safe.  Likely, we are way over engineered for our area, but that's fine.

So, the snow and wind kit consists of a 2x4 cross piece between each long rafter pair.  Then, there's a half rafter that connects to it and rests on the cable circling the top of the yurt wall.  The last part of it is an upright 2x4 that is beneath each long rafter connecting it to your deck/platform.  In our case, it was connected to the cement grade beam we poured.

Each cross piece required some tricky angled cuts to fit between each rafter pair. So, everyone of them was a custom cut on both ends.  It was tedious and time consuming.  Thankfully, Brent and Bob are both experienced with this kind of thing and worked very well together.  Ronnee-Sue and I just ran around getting them things.

Even the uprights had to be custom cut to fit the rafter they were to sit under.  Ronnee-Sue and I got a few done, but had to wait for the guys to finish portions before we could continue.  At the end of the day, we still had about two thirds of the uprights to finish.

Bob and Brent are working on installing the cross pieces (between long rafters) and as they go they are also installing the half rafters.

Bob gives his best parade wave.

Our work station.  We are so glad our little generator finally came in (just in time for this project!) and that we went ahead and bought that compound miter saw!

Here you can see the cross pieces and the half rafters extending from them to the cable.  You can also see the upright 2x4s beneath each long rafter.  This is one sturdy yurt!

Here's a view showing how the long and half rafters all set on to the cable.  Each has a screw in the end locking the cable in.

Another view.

Here we are nearly finished for the day, though not finished at all with the snow wind kit.