[HN Gopher] Yurt Calculator
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       Yurt Calculator
        
       Author : raptorraver
       Score  : 137 points
       Date   : 2023-05-01 18:18 UTC (4 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (simplydifferently.org)
 (TXT) w3m dump (simplydifferently.org)
        
       | michaelsmanley wrote:
       | I'm so glad there are still sites like this.
        
       | [deleted]
        
       | culi wrote:
       | From the Wikipedia page:
       | 
       | > Yurts take between 30 minutes and 3 hours to set up or take
       | down, and are generally used by between five and 15 people.
        
         | mshockwave wrote:
         | I wonder if there is any military application of using Yurts-
         | alike tents, considering them being more resilient to extreme
         | weather yet easy to set up and take down.
        
       | cypherpunks01 wrote:
       | See also, Desert Domes for their highly useful Dome Calculators
       | and related dome formulas, material & assembly tips, and other
       | resources for all your geodesic dome needs:
       | 
       | http://www.desertdomes.com/domecalc.html
        
         | teddyh wrote:
         | From that link:
         | 
         | > _Go see Benny and the elves for some Electroluminescent wire
         | to decorate your dome!_
         | 
         | What. Let's see the Photo Galleries. Ah, eight groups of photos
         | - five from Burning Man and three from Mardi Gras. I see.
        
           | mikepurvis wrote:
           | Yeah that's more glamping than an earnest discussion about
           | long term occupancy considerations.
        
       | einpoklum wrote:
       | So, what keeps the Yurt from planar movement? Is it anchored via
       | stakes somehow?
        
         | capableweb wrote:
         | From the website:
         | 
         | > While living in the yurt experienced 2-3 strong storms, at my
         | site up to 120km/h I would estimate. I'm kind of a slow learner
         | at first as I had to fix and fasten the yurt while the storm
         | was underway as I often hoped the ropes I used were sufficient,
         | and experienced they were not.
         | 
         | > It's worth noticing, the storms affects the roof mostly, no
         | impact to the wall as I noticed, me using 90deg lattice angle
         | and bamboo, with stretching the rain wall cover below the floor
         | and use one rope on that height, almost on the ground, all
         | around to fasten it (as seen on a photo above already). Some
         | people put some small laths on the floor to fixate the lattice
         | wall on the floor, or screw the door frame on the floor, both
         | which I didn't do.
         | 
         | https://simplydifferently.org/Yurt_Notes?page=6#Storm%20Prep...
         | 
         | Seems to be fastened somehow, but it's not specified how.
        
           | culi wrote:
           | > up to 120km/h I would estimate
           | 
           | That's the bottom end of the windspeed of an F1 (weakest
           | grade) tornado.
           | 
           | I have no doubt the architecture of choice of people's who
           | lived in the steppe regions of Central Asia, a place where
           | extreme winds are pretty common, would obviously need to be
           | able to handle these winds but it still feels hard to believe
           | that an amateur yurt builder could get one able to withstand
           | a weak tornado on their first build...
        
         | pugworthy wrote:
         | For Hexayurts (https://www.appropedia.org/Hexayurt) one can
         | create a rope halo that goes around the top of the roof, with a
         | series of anchor ropes going down to the ground. Very effective
         | at keeping foam structures well anchored at Burning Man, where
         | the wind can be quite fierce.
        
       | extrememacaroni wrote:
       | Legends say Genghis Khan's horses were trained to be so fast
       | because they were also used to transport bytes to and from such
       | sites, to calculate their yurts.
        
         | spiznnx wrote:
         | This site could be an excel spreadsheet running on a laptop in
         | a saddle bag!
        
         | [deleted]
        
       | meebob wrote:
       | This website fills me with nostalgia! I used it many years ago to
       | make a tiny 8ft yurt, which was a fun little project. Putting up
       | a yurt is really satisfying- the way the lattice walls flex is
       | very cool, and seeing the way tension works across the structure
       | is fun.
        
       | asimpleusecase wrote:
       | I lived in Mongolia for a year and got to stay a couple days in
       | real yurts.
       | 
       | The round wall directs wind around the structure and local people
       | hang a heavy weight from the center of the yurt to give it
       | resistance to the lifting force of the wind.
       | 
       | They are cool in the summer with the bottom edge of canvas rolled
       | up to allow airflow. ( but also mosquitoes)and warm in the winter
       | when a layer of thick wool felt is layered over the whole
       | structure and covered with canvas. In the centre is a stove that
       | can burn wood or dried animal dung.
       | 
       | They are very spacious.
       | 
       | You can tell the time by the sun shadow on the floor via the
       | smoke hole in the centre.
       | 
       | BTW if you enter a yurt and in Mongolia don't step on the door
       | still it is rude.
       | 
       | If you sleep over don't be shocked when members of the family
       | take off clothes to change. Modesty is the responsibility of the
       | viewer.
        
         | tantalor wrote:
         | What's a door still?
        
           | fsckboy wrote:
           | a door sill is the threshold of the door (like windowsill),
           | but I'm not sure he meant it like that at all
        
             | motrm wrote:
             | I think he could indeed be right, I was curious about that
             | too and came across this page[0] about Mongolian gers (aka
             | yurt) which includes the following etiquette guidelines:
             | 
             | - When approaching a Mongolian ger it is customary to say,
             | "Nokhoigo Khorioroi" which means "Hold the dog," even if
             | you don't see a dog. This is because guard dogs are common
             | and a dog may be aggressive towards visitors, but it in
             | general alerts the occupants to your presence so they can
             | come out and greet you.
             | 
             | - Never knock on a ger door. It is considered rude. You
             | simply enter.
             | 
             | - When entering a Mongolian ger, step with your right foot
             | first and never stand on the threshold. The threshold is
             | said to be the "neck" of the ger and standing on it
             | tantamount to "strangling" the home.
             | 
             | - Mongolians don't chat to each other over the threshold.
             | Step in rather than asking things through the doorway.
             | 
             | - To greet your hosts say, "Sain bain uu?" (pronounced
             | "Sey-Ben-Oo") - meaning "how do you do?" If you are
             | entering for the second, third, fourth time, you can just
             | say "Sen-ooo", meaning "Hi!".
             | 
             | Today we both learned :)
             | 
             | [0] https://notesofnomads.com/mongolian-
             | gers/#Ger_etiquette_The_...
        
         | world2vec wrote:
         | >"Modesty is the responsibility of the viewer."
         | 
         | This reminds me of what my father - from a very rural, poor,
         | small community - told about my grandparents and his
         | upbringing. Tiny house, not many bedrooms but many kids (in the
         | end 10 children), so it was common for many of the youngest
         | ones to sleep in the same bed as my grandparents. And yet they
         | still conceived new babies (they're all 2 or 3 years apart from
         | each other)! Sounds a bit crazy in these modern times.
        
       | jcadam wrote:
       | Sometimes I wonder if it wouldn't be better to buy some cheap
       | land and throw up a yurt (or maybe a Quonset hut if you're more
       | fancy), rather than take on a 30-year mortgage.
        
         | Kalium wrote:
         | You'll find it is!
         | 
         | That said, many might face some challenges in doing so in a
         | place they want to live. It's non-trivial to find a cheap piece
         | of livable land in a city. In a more rural areas, you can
         | expect some possible complications in things like water,
         | electricity, and internet access.
        
           | nine_k wrote:
           | Water: dig a well, buy a kettle.
           | 
           | Electricity: solar panels + batteries. You will need a lot of
           | them if you want to run a small fridge. Forget about a gaming
           | desktop.
           | 
           | Internet access: LTE via a tall antenna if you're lucky,
           | Starlink otherwise. Add more solar panels.
           | 
           | You'll have to limit your diet mostly to foods that store
           | well without a fridge. A tiny fridge can still fit the power
           | budget.
           | 
           | I'd say that sewage and trash disposal are going to be bigger
           | problems. Having a shower, too, especially in winter.
        
             | TedDoesntTalk wrote:
             | > dig a well, buy a kettle
             | 
             | Digging a well can end up costing more than the price of
             | the land if you have to dig multiple times to find water
        
             | HideousKojima wrote:
             | Sewage is easy, get a septic tank
        
               | culi wrote:
               | Even easier than that... just don't treat it as "sewage".
               | In Japan all the way up into the 20th century landlords
               | often claimed a right to their residents "night soil". In
               | pretty much everywhere except (parts of) Europe, human
               | manure was seen as a very valuable resource.
               | 
               | Start a compost pile and get the correct Carbon:Nitrogen
               | ratio (~24:1). Using the Berkeley method it can reach
               | heats of up to 200degF (93degC) within a week. You'd be
               | surprised how quickly something like human feces can
               | neutralized in conditions like these. The recommended
               | wait time before direct handling is usually about 2
               | months but this is mostly because it's hard to be sure
               | you've got the right ratios, temperatures, etc.
               | 
               | Regardless, anyone trying an "offgrid" life would be wise
               | to stop pouring effort into throwing away one of the most
               | valuable resources humans produce
        
               | carapace wrote:
               | I've done experiments (with items from the catbox, not my
               | own) with vermi-composting night soil. A healthy colony
               | of _E. foetidia_ with vanish a turd in less than an hour
               | or so.
        
               | [deleted]
        
         | nine_k wrote:
         | One issue: bathroom.
         | 
         | Not an actual bathtub, of course, but at least a shower and a
         | toilet.
        
         | vectorxheng wrote:
         | You can actually get land for like under $200 here:
         | https://minute.land/
         | 
         | They basically divide up large parcels to get the price down
         | significantly.
        
           | ytdytvhxgydvhh wrote:
           | Just to be clear, they aren't actually selling land, they're
           | selling access to land.
           | 
           | https://minute.land/about
        
         | jollyllama wrote:
         | The problem is finding a place where they won't nail you with
         | building codes, zoning or other ordinances, etc.
        
           | iancmceachern wrote:
           | Especially in California
        
           | Scoundreller wrote:
           | Quite often the places with cheap land are also the ones that
           | don't have building codes.
        
             | TeMPOraL wrote:
             | They also lack various things highly correlated with
             | presence of building codes, such us road access,
             | electricity, running water, clean water, _water_ , food
             | variety, healthcare, ER/ambulance, fire
             | protection/prevention, crime protection/prevention,
             | schooling, after-school activities, nightlife, pool for
             | potential mates, (edit: was supposed to be "pool _of_
             | potential mates ", but in this context both work), and in
             | general, people.
        
               | Scoundreller wrote:
               | I mean, not paying for/depending on/having half of those
               | networks sounds pretty awesome
               | 
               | I'd add lack of internet to your list. Much harder (but
               | not impossible) to provide yourself.
        
               | jollyllama wrote:
               | >much harder to provide
               | 
               | That's the real problem. HN forgets not everyone is
               | remote.
        
               | TeMPOraL wrote:
               | The "provide" is easy these days, apparently, thanks to
               | Starlink.
               | 
               | The "yourself" bit is a tricky bit, as where it comes to
               | utilities, you can sort of DIY your own supply of
               | everything else, but Internet is as much a social
               | construct as it is technical.
        
               | DANmode wrote:
               | Have they resolved their scaling issues that folks here
               | have been raising red flags about?
        
               | TeMPOraL wrote:
               | Absolutely! Unfortunately, they are all mutually
               | dependent and mutually reinforcing, so you can't opt out
               | of some without opting out of the rest.
        
               | microtherion wrote:
               | Cf "A Libertarian Walks Into a Bear":
               | https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/matthew-
               | hongoltz-he...
        
             | jcadam wrote:
             | Up here in Alaska, land can be had _very_ cheap (but
             | construction costs are high), particularly if you don 't
             | care to be on the road system.
        
               | diversionfactor wrote:
               | Where can I find this cheap land? When I check online
               | zillow, or via Alaskan state land auctions, the price of
               | building lots even without road access in the deep
               | interior is more than that of a suburb in Texas!
        
               | mbrameld wrote:
               | https://dnr.alaska.gov/mlw/landsales/parcels/details/470-
               | 143... seems pretty cheap to me at about $4,200 per acre.
               | A quick search of building lots in San Marcos, TX as an
               | example shows prices are around $200,000 per acre, or
               | about 50 times higher than the land in Alaska:
               | https://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-search/San-
               | Marcos...
               | 
               | Can you share the lots you were looking at?
        
               | diversionfactor wrote:
               | San Marcos is one of the most overpriced and fastest
               | growing markets in Texas, right next to Austin, priced to
               | the stratosphere since the Californians moved in. Austin
               | is my home town, but I couldn't afford to live in San
               | Marcos.
               | 
               | For typical Texas land priced around the same per acre as
               | Alaskan land:
               | 
               | https://www.land.com/property/Fox-Hunters-Club-Rd-Bon-
               | Wier-T...
               | 
               | $19,708 - 3.79 acres On a public road, with electricity
               | (water you'd need a well). Remote East Texas, and by
               | remote I mean you're 20 min drive from the nearest city
               | (Kirbyville with some gas, food, small department stores)
               | and 40 min drive from the nearest Walmart SuperCenter
               | (the real sign of civilization in rural America).
               | 
               | Or if you prefer something closer to a city, the desert
               | just outside Del Rio, you can see:
               | 
               | https://www.land.com/property/Windmill-Rd-Del-Rio-
               | Texas-7884...
               | 
               | $15,997 - 2.05 acres On a public road, I see electricity
               | nearby but you'd have to run it to your land ($15k+
               | probably), or just do solar since there's plenty of sun
               | there. Well water and septic. Bordering the Rough Canyon
               | national recreation area and Lake Amistad, if you like
               | boating and hiking (watch out for rattlesnakes). I'd say
               | a "suburb" of Del Rio, an apartment building and single
               | family homes 7 min drive away as well as a cafe. The
               | nearest Walmart Supercenter is 30 min drive away in Del
               | Rio, as well as the city of Del Rio and the general
               | aviation airport is by the Walmart, if you wanted to fly
               | to San Antonio or Monterrey.
               | 
               | Now you might be saying, I want true suburban land, like
               | surrounded by other single family homes, with water
               | hookups and neighbors, and commuting distance to a major
               | city. That's going to cost you more - but not much more,
               | especially given it's already got all utilities:
               | 
               | https://www.land.com/property/1631-Old-Henry-Court-
               | Angleton-...
               | 
               | $33,000 - 1 acres About 15 minutes drive from the nearest
               | Walmart Supercenter in Angleton, as well as an HEB (gotta
               | have that HEB), and 40 min commute to Pearland where you
               | could actually find city jobs, or 60 min if you want to
               | go all the way to downtown Houston (I used to have a
               | manager who did just this drive every day for 10+ years,
               | so she could live on a working horse farm).
               | 
               | That's where my disconnect is for Alaskan land prices. I
               | can only surmise it's because the federal and state
               | government own like 99%+ of the land in Alaska and only
               | sell a very small amount at any time to rigidly control
               | the prices and development. Like an Uber-California in
               | that way.
        
               | AngryData wrote:
               | $4,200 per acre seems absurdly expensive to me for land
               | out that deep in the boonies without electricity or
               | roads. For $4,200 an acre I can buy rural land around me
               | with road access, guaranteed electrical access, and
               | within the last 2 and upcoming 5 years, fiber connections
               | (just got mine 2 weeks ago).
        
               | vectorxheng wrote:
               | the best place is minute land (https://minute.land/),
               | they subdivide cheap land and get the price down really
               | low, like $200 low
        
               | thfuran wrote:
               | Ah, to get away from civilization into pristine nature,
               | 12 feet away from the next guy doing the same.
        
               | mhb wrote:
               | A cursory look reveals that there is acreage in Maine for
               | less than $2K/acre.
               | 
               | https://www.landwatch.com/maine-land-for-sale
        
               | vectorxheng wrote:
               | you can also get land for under $200 at Minute
               | (https://minute.land/)
        
           | [deleted]
        
         | asdff wrote:
         | Yurts are fundamentally portable. You can set up on blm land
         | and live indefinitely for free if you are decamping every three
         | weeks.
        
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       (page generated 2023-05-01 23:00 UTC)