spent my day off yesterday bolting the yurt to the deck with L-brackets. nifty things, L-brackets. strong, too. thus:
the walls have a *lot* less wiggle now. bright idea courtesy of Colorado Yurt Co, from whom i am ordering a vinyl cover for my yurt, also. that should help with the wind, and completely solve the water under the walls problem that i have in strong rainstorms. i also went to Home Depot and picked up most of the equipment to actualize the new windproof Yurt Tie Down plan: four sturdy eyebolts in the hub (on the outside of the yurt, up around the chimney), four trailer stakes (courtesy of Rick’s Mobile Home Supply in Los Lunas, to whom i was referred by the home depot guy) which are these phenomenally sturdy ground screws with a thing on the end that i can clip a steel cable to, and the hardware to clip said cables, and the hardware to make loops that will not break on the ends of said cables. i did not get the cable, not having a good idea of how much i need. we’ve done the math since then, and now i have a good-enough estimate to get cable this weekend while we’re up in the North Valley and can reasonably swing by Chase Hardware. this all will prevent major shifts or catastrophe (hopefully) in windstorms, such as the one we almost had last weekend. last night’s windstorm was *much* quieter, thank goodness. i’m sure the incredibly large well rig parked ten feet away helped a bit. meanwhile, Rodgers & Co came out and drilled our new well! they have another day or so of work to do on it, and they’re there today, doing their thing.
Here’s the rig getting set up:
the rig in our cottonwoods:
view from the barnyard–you can see why we moved that shed:
looking straight up at it: 
details: the drill bit: 
equipment: 
in which this happens:
that’s water with a bunch of bentonite in it, bubbling like mad as it is sluiced into and then out of the new well.
the new pond performed precisely as needed: 
having done that, they put the well down the shaft at the end of the day. this is our well casing:
this is the final pipe in the well, through which the water recharges:
while all that was going on, Tristan & Sarah finished building the wood-storage racks on the north side of the barn. Thistle helped:
(that’s the drill cord she’s got hold of, there).
they made shelves that are so strong we can climb them like monkey bars.
bonus hoodlum turkeys, under their red lamp:
(don’t they look like they’re up to something?)
without the red light:
and chicks: 
and the shiny new barnwood turkey coop that
i think the turkey coop is gorgeous. the wood is salvage from the old barn we knocked down last winter. the roof is salvage from the old horse corralls. the only new anything was the 4×4 upright posts. and hardware. :) materials-on-hand animal housing for the win! we fenced in this whole end of the barnyard for the turkeys, too. still need to roof the pen with chicken wire as hawk-protection, but that’s it. that was all on Sunday, at the work party.
Today, the well people are finishing the installation and flushing the well until it runs clear, then i think they are doing the electrical & plumbing rough-outs. i am not clear on when exactly the concrete pad gets poured; it sounded like that part might not be today.