The story of the yurt starts with the biggest attraction in Bethel, ME: Sunday River. For the 2016-2017 season I volunteered to join the mountain ski patrol and committed to over 20 days on-hill. For this amount of time in the area it made sense to find a place to stay on weekends and vacations to reduce trips back and forth to Portland. By happenstance I stumbled across a town auction for acquired property and I put a bid on a 10-acre lot on route 26, sight unseen. A few weeks later in October of 2016 I received notice that I won the bid and things started to move quickly.
Between a shed, RV, and yurt my girlfriend chose a yurt and I found Two Girls Farm out of Acworth, NH that agreed to a fast-moving timeline on raising a yurt before the ground froze and snow flew. I put down a deposit on the yurt and started constructing the platform and outhouse. With the help of friends, family, and White Mountain Lumber the platform and outhouse went in quickly and both were ready for the December 2nd yurt raising which was captured in time lapse:
The first winter at the yurt was primitive: without a driveway staying at the yurt meant parking at our neighbors (thank you Steve!) and walking all our gear in every weekend. On Christmas I thought I could park next to the yurt one last time before the snow got deep and learned the hard way that snow, ice, and a driveway with a negative pitch towards a swamp means calling your dad to pull you out. After a successful first ski season many improvements were made including a greywater system for doing dishes and draining water, fixing the driveway grade, and arranging for snowplowing (thank you John!).
We hope you enjoy the rustic, off-the-grid, experience that we look forward to during the winter when the skiing is great or in the summer when you don't have to wake up during the night to feed the stove!
-Scott & Jae