With our first yurt having now been up for two months, and three more yurts on their way, I thought I would outline how and why we decided to choose authentic mongolian yurts.
Ever since we decided to set up yurts at Hill Farm, I had authentic yurts in mind. There are so many different options, all of which have their own advantages and disadvantages. Modern designs have excellent weatherproofing and a more contemporary feel, but for me, they seem to have something lacking. After several months of researching online, and a few visits to various places, we made up our minds to go for Ulaantaij yurts via Yurts Direct. There are many yurts being made in Mongolia and China, but not all meet the high standards or have the ethical credentials that Yurts Direct offer.
Our reasons for choosing yurts from Ulaantaij:
- Designed and constructed specifically for a European climate.
- Ulaantaij believe in the right of every person to a job at fair wages, with dignity and justice.
- A percentage of all sales go to support Mongolian based charities.
- Constructed using ethically sourced natural components and modern materials.
- Yurts are painted or carved with traditional Mongolian designs.
- Ulaantaij have exported yurts to the West longer than anyone else, so we felt confident that we were in good hands!
Once we had our yurt in place, we knew we had made the right decision, as we were (and still are!) blown away by its beauty. It truly is a magical place to spend time in, and everyone who has stepped into our yurt has exclaimed ‘wow!’. It has also withstood some seriously strong gales, and heavy rain over the last couple of months, so we feel more and more confident in its ability to endure all that the English weather can throw at it!
We can’t wait to collect the next three. We have opted for green, orange, and red painted designs, so it will be interesting to see how they compare to the light blue one, which has a really calming and peaceful feel to it.
Bluebell Yurt
Another great weekend spent in the yurt – rather blustery, but we worry less and less now about stability, as it is still standing despite some serious gales this winter! We love the new wood burner, and have quite happily been boiling the kettle on there for coffee, and cooking bacon and eggs for breakfast. I must try warming milk on there next week for some porridge, as it’s not doing my diet much good! Delicious though 
We also spotted the most beautiful rainbow on Sunday afternoon.
This Saturday Mark and I entertained 13 people in the Yurt! It was a belated party to celebrate the arrival of our first Yurt at Hill Farm.
The weather was pretty awful – rain, rain, and more rain fell most of the day, but our new wood burner (a “Henry” from Windy Smithy) did a great job of keeping the Yurt warm and dry – so much so in fact, that some of our guests had to keep stepping outside onto the decking to cool down! We served Chilli con carne, kept warm on the wood burner, with lots of crusty bread, nachos, salsa, and sour cream – yum!
It was a great night, and comfortably housed us all. The next day the Yurt seemed huge with just the two of us in there!
I think the next party might involve mulled wine on the wood burner, and some mince pies!
With the Yurt finally up and in place in the garden, we have now made a start on furnishing, and have installed the wood burner.
It is a truly wonderful place to sit and spend time, and with the fire going, extremely warm and toasty! We had great fun on Saturday night entertaining Norman and Tricia, testing out the wind up radio and rechargeable lantern.
It was lovely to go to bed looking up at stars, with the fire crackling, and the distant sound of owls calling to each other in Hestercombe Wood. In the morning, I woke to the sight of the sun coming up, and the sound of birds chattering, with the odd huff and puff from the Bull in the collecting yard! Fabulous
With the fire roaring again, and a coffee made from water boiled on the burner, life felt very good indeed.
We can’t wait to go back this weekend and spend more time in our Yurt.
This weekend we made a start on the deck for the Garden Yurt, which has now arrived and waiting to be put up!
A few pics to show progress so far. Next weekend we hope to finish the decking, and maybe even get the Yurt up!
Our first Yurt is now at Hill Farm!
It’s currently still packed up in all its parts, as we need to install the decking before we can unpack and get it up and running. All very exciting.
Here are a couple of pics of Jack, our spaniel, sat in the van while we packed it up ready to take back to the farm.
Well, we’ve been making great progress with the planning permission documents, and have some really exciting ideas for the facilities area.
Our first yurt is due to arrive in the UK at the end of September, and we are really looking forward to setting it up and spending time there, getting to know the ins and outs of yurt living!
We’ll get some pictures of the yurt up as soon as we have it up and running, but in the meantime, here are a few recent shots taken at Hill Farm – preparing our new vegetable patch, (with help from Jack, our puppy), and some freshly picked Damsen’s and Blackberry’s. Yummy!
It’s June, the sun is shining, and that can only mean one thing on the farm – hay making!
Mark hadn’t driven a tractor for a while, but was soon showing off his trailer reversing skills, and I was very chuffed to be in a tractor with a passenger seat! A few years ago I would have been trying to perch and balance myself on the edge of the drivers seat, so I was most impressed with this development in the tractor world!
On the Yurt front, we are still busy researching Yurts and trying to find a suitable supplier. We have been really delighted with all the requests from people wanting to book a Yurt holiday, so we can’t wait to open now – a lot to do before that though!
Here are a few images to show the view from our office that day. These views are just around the corner from the proposed Yurt site.
So there’s plenty of potential sites around the farm that we’ve been looking at – one of the most promising locations is this one – in “the triangle” field:
