Khana Pieces

Here is the update on how building my yurt is going:

In the past few weeks, I bought the wood pieces to start making the khana, which is the slat walls of the yurt. I went to Ashby Lumber in Berkeley, and bought 80 pieces of 8ft slats (they are 1x2 inch) made of douglas fir. I am following Paul King's guide, although I am not bending the khana pieces as he suggests in his book. I just don't have the time or the energy to make a steaming vessel to put all of the wood pieces inside and then bend them.

The khana join together at points 9 inches apart to form a criss-crossed lattice style wall. For my 12 foot diameter yurt, I will need to make 3 sections of khana, which join together to create the wall. The wall wraps around and is forced into a circle. Once it is joined to a door frame (as you can see in the photo below) it creates a strong support for the roof poles.


This is a picture of a yurt from allaboutyurts.com where you can see the lattice wall, or khana.

I have a total of 85 pieces, the longest being 6.5 feet. This should make for a 5 foot wall height. It took me two weekends to cut down each of the 85 pieces to length, and also round off the two ends so that there weren't any sharp corners. Then I had to drill holes every 9 inches. There were soooo many holes to drill that it literally took half the entire time. I first made a template piece, which had three holes drilled every 9 inches. I put that on top of the piece of khana I was drilling to mark where to make each hole. When I marked the three from the template, I moved the template down the piece until I reached the end, as Paul King suggests in his book.



Some of the khana pieces I made our of douglas fir. The ends were cut at an angle so that there were no sharp points.


I am now in the process of sanding all of the pieces (all 85 of them!) and then varnishing them with one coat. I got over half of them sanded already and about 1/5th of the pieces varnished. The varnish will seal the wood and make it look nicer from inside. I am basically done with the frame of the yurt. Now I just have to put it together after I finish varnishing all of the pieces, including the roof poles.

Putting Up the X-mas Tree

Our Christmas Tree

We were debating for a while whether or not to get a tree this year. I wanted a tree, and so did Romy, but we wanted a real tree, but felt bad if we bought one. We didn't want to kill a tree just to drag it inside for two weeks. Then, at first jokingly, Romy suggested we buy a pine tree from Home Depot and put it in a big pot and bring it inside, then let it grow outside for the rest of the year. Next x-mas, we'd bring it inside again! So as we were going to Home Depot for some stuff (unrelated to the tree) we checked out the garden section to see if they had any pine trees for sale. They didn't, but they had their x-mas tree section fenced off outside, so we took a look. We found a few rosemary trees, which were about one foot tall. It was a rosemary bush that was cut into a cone shape to look like a tree. I thought that was creative, but it was too small. Home Depot didn't have what we were thinking of, so we later went to a nursery and found exactly it! They sold pine trees that were in a big pot and were about 3 to 4 feet tall. One of them was priced right (just $15 more than a cut tree that was 5 feet tall) so we decided to get it. We managed to fit it in the back of the Daewoo, and drove it home.



Bow ornaments

We got a Colorado Blue Spruce. It had a lot of slugs living in the soil, and a snail. Before we brought it inside, we let it sit outside for a few days because it rained a lot, so it got a good watering. Meanwhile, we didn't have any tree decorations, so we went to IKEA. They already had their x-mas decorations on sale, so we bought a few items. They were all very cheap. I think we spent no more than $8 on all of the tree decorations. I made the star at the top from a roll of shiny silver wrapping paper and cardboard. I also had to make a stand for the pot. I wanted to elevate the tree so that the foliage was in the window, so that it could get the maximum amount of light during the day (since it is alive). The man at the nursery said we shouldn't keep it indoors for more than a week, so we put it inside this past weekend. We'll put it back outside just after x-mas.



Person thing. . . santa? ornaments

Steep Ravine Cabin

My sister, Nicole, and her husband, Marcel, came for a quick visit this past week and as a special treat, we reserved one of the Steep Ravine Environmental Camp cabins on the ocean! They are part of Mt. Tamalpais State Park, which is located just north of San Fransisco in Marin county. The cabin was a bit pricey ($100/night) but we figured it would be a once-in-a-lifetime kind of experience, and where else can you get a beautiful cabin just a stone's throw away from the ocean for $100? Split between four people, it wasn't bad. We reserved it on recreation.gov.



Two of the Steep Ravine cabins perched on 'rocky point.'

When we reserved the cabins, we got an e-mail with the code to the gate (the entrance to the environmental camp is locked from the highway) and the combo for the cabin. You must make a reservation to get in - its not a drive-in kind of campground. We reserved cabin #4, which was the southern most cabin, and we had an awesome view of the waves crashing onto the rocky shore. Before I reserved the cabin, I tried researching about them on the internet, but couldn't find too much info on them, so I will write as much as I can about our experience.



Our cabin, called Rocky Point, #4.

Inside the cabin, we found a plaque which told the history of the cabins. They were built in the 1930s by some man (I forgot who). He built 13 of them and then leased them out to private individuals. In the 60s or 70s, the state park took over the land, and the issue with what to do about the cabins became controversial. They were abandoned by the park service, and most of them became dilapidated. Three of them eventually had to be torn down because they were in bad shape. In the 80s, the park finally began to restore them, and in 1984, they began renting them out to people to stay in (like us!). There are 10 cabins which remain in use, plus a fancy campground host cabin (it looks more like a small house). There is no running water or electricity. It is completely primitive. Inside the cabins are wooden sleeping platforms and a wood stove, which you use for heating.



The smaller of the two sleeping platforms in the 'bedroom.' You can also see the bunk beds to the right.

We came with a bunch of our own firewood (although they sell large bundles for a reasonable price near the campground host). We also had a big Coleman lantern to light up the cabin at night. We brought all of our camping stuff, basically, like sleeping bags, a small stove, and the mess kit.



The table and bench/sleeping platform in the main room of the cabin.

We got there in the afternoon, so we had time for a small hike before it got dark. There was a nice trail along the coast, and also into the campground part of the environmental camp. We saw calla lilies blooming and other coastal flowers in bloom. There were hummingbirds, herons, and pelicans all over! After that we ended up going back into the cabin to start a fire in the wood stove and toast some pine cones we picked up so that we could eat the pine nuts. We ended up over-toasting them, because they came out a little burnt.



Ocean view from inside the cabin (#4).

We brought plenty of wine and chips, chili, avocados for dip, and cheese. That was our dinner. We could hear the waves crashing into the shore below us all evening and all night. It was neat! Although it was cloudy, it didn't rain. We had a light mist overnight, but we were sleeping anyways.



Tidepools near the cabin.

The next morning, we woke up early so that we could go check out the tidepools near the cabin. Hiking north, we found a rocky inlet where we saw a bunch of hermit crabs in their shells, walking around. Then we began to notice bright green sea anemones, and even brown and orange starfish! We picked up some dried kelp, and tried poking the starfish to see if they would move, but they were really hard and stiff, and they didn't even budge. They were just stuck to their rock.



A brown-ish starfish at the tidepools.



Two orange and two brown starfish clinging under the rocks.



A green sea anemone.

On our way back, the sun came out a little bit, and we saw a rainbow! But it seemed like rain was coming our way. After we got back to our cabin, it was sadly time to go already, since check-out was at noon. So we packed up our things and headed to the car. We drove home along the coast on Hwy 1.



The Steep Ravine cabins and a rainbow.

Bristlecone Pines: Earth's Oldest Living Things!

Whenever we make a trip over to the Bishop, CA area, we have to stop and see the Bristlecone Pine trees. They live happily in this one spot (although their range extends into Nevada and Utah), high up on the mountain tops in the White Mountain Range in east central California, just north of Death Valley National Park. The White Mountains are in the rain shadow of the Sierra Nevadas, so they are extremely dry and cold, but just as high! The tallest peak in the Sierra Nevadas (Mt. Whitney) stands at 14,525 ft, while the tallest peak in the White Mountains (White Mountain) stands at 14,246 ft.



Driving up to see the Bristlecone Pines over Thanksgiving 2009. My mom is scrapping off the ice build-up on the windshield. The Bristlecone Pine forest is in the background.

The Bristlecone Pines live up there, just below the tree line. They survive in the dry, windy, and cold environment because they grow very slowly and their wood is highly resistant to insects, fungi, and disease. The oldest known tree living right now is 4,767 years old and is named "Methuselah." It grows somewhere up in the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest, a protected region up in the White Mountains. Its exact location is kept secret to protect it. To give you an idea of how old that actually is, Methuselah was a seedling when the ancient Egyptians began building pyramids. It is still alive today!



A Bristlecone Pine in the White Mountains.

The White Mountain Range is home to the oldest Bristlecone Pines. Scientists who read tree rings have made a continuous record of the pine trees' growth that goes back 10,000 years ago by coring dead trees and alive ones. This website is a great place to learn more about them!



A close-up view of the twisted branches of a Bristlecone Pine in the White Mountains.

Calpine Fire Lookout Tower

For the Thanksgiving break this year, my mom visited from Chicago. Having Thursday and Friday off from school, we decided to take my mom to the Sierra Nevada mountains because she never saw them before. A couple weeks in advance, I reserved an old fire tower in the mountains north of Lake Tahoe to spend Thanksgiving night in. The National Forest Service used to staff hundreds of fire towers which were built on the tops of mountains all throughout the West. The towers were staffed (some still are staffed) during the summer months, when lightening storms threatened the forests with wildfires. But in modern times, many places watch out for fires using airplanes instead, so the fire towers became obsolete. Now the Forest Service rents out some of the towers to the public at reasonable prices. You can reserve them online at recreation.gov or directly from the nearest ranger station, and most National Forest websites have a page about the towers they rent out, if there are any.



The Calpine fire lookout tower we spent Thanksgiving evening/night in.


View of Sierra Valley from the Calpine fire lookout tower.


The road to the Calpine fire lookout tower was gated, so before heading there we had to stop at the Sierraville Ranger Station to pick up the gate lock combination and the lock combination for the tower itself. Since it was Thanksgiving day, they left us a small packet of info in a black mailbox outside the station. It gave us info and directions to the tower, which was just across the Sierra Valley. There was still snow on the ground from the snow storm they had a week before, but the road to the tower was still open. When we got to the road, it had compacted snow from where people drove before which had turned icy. The parts of the dirt road which were exposed to the sun were pretty muddy. We decided it would be best to just put the chains on the tires so that we had more traction. It wasn't too hard to put the chains on, and it made driving much easier and safer.



The chains are on the bus.


Locked gate to the tower.


We brought everything with us that night to cook our own Thanksgiving dinner for three. Since a turkey would be too big, we got cornish hens, veggies & potatoes, cream of broccoli soup, and cake for dessert (although we ended up eating it for breakfast the next morning instead). The tower had a propane stove and oven, along with a propane heater, and sink, but no running water. We brought our own 7 gallon container filled with tap water up to the tower, which was plenty. As the sun began to set over the mountains, we put the food in the oven to bake while we had some soup and drinks. The tower had a deck of cards, and so many books to read. We relaxed, watching the sunset over the mountains, and just enjoyed the scenery.



The beds in the fire tower.


The sink in the fire tower (BYO water).


Evening at the Calpine fire lookout tower.


Thanksgiving dinner.


Night at the Calpine fire lookout tower.

That night, when we went to bed, we could see the moon shining, which provided a bunch of light, but made it hard to see the stars. After the moon set, the stars were bright. Sometime after midnight, we were all awoken by a crazy wind, which ripped over the mountains and shook the wooden awnings over the windows. Sometimes the wind blew so hard, it felt like the whole tower was shaking! The wind came in gusts, which were becoming more and more frequent as dawn approached. Being surrounded by windows, when the sun came up it was hard not to wake up, with all the natural light beaming in. By that time, the wind was constantly blowing and it looked as if a snow storm was headed our way from the West. So we got our things packed and made coffee and had breakfast, and then started making our way out of the tower. Our next destination was Lake Tahoe, for a quick drive along its eastern shore, and then we were off on Hwy 395 south to show my mom some natural hot springs. . .



Sunrise at the tower.

VW Campout at Bothe Napa State Park

The weekend before Thanksgiving, the vwcamperfamily (which, by the way, has a *new* website - check out the link) organized another camping get together at the Bothe Napa Valley State Park campground, and the highlight of the whole campout was a Saturday night early Thanksgiving dinner. Everybody brought a small dish with them but the star of the show was Joel's turkey deep fryer and Melissa's big turkey. There were over 10 buses that showed up, a great turn out! Here are some pictures I took over the weekend:



Our orange bus and John's dormobile bus shared a site to save a little money on the camping fees.


Sheri and Mike's split window bus, and Brett's Big Blue bus.


Joel puts the turkey in the deep fryer to cook.


The turkey looks done and ready to eat! Gobble gobble!


Waiting for all the food to cook. Hanging out by the camp fire under John's big tent.