Wednesday, October 17, 2007

A Yurt of One's Own

I said to Gene the other day that we should just buy some land and get a yurt and live the simple life. Yes, of course, we'd have to rent office space for our books, but it would still be cheaper than our current rent. There's an appeal to this idea that goes back to Thoreau's injunction, "Our life is frittered away by detail... Simplify, simplify, simplify!" Although it is good to remember that he had someone else do his laundry, which I suppose means even he took simplifying only so far. It's an outgrowth of stress, surely, but the virtual tour at Pacific Yurts makes the yurt life look so warm and friendly.When I think of buying a house -- which we hope to do in the spring -- I always think of being in Albany, near campus and near all the city amenities. Perched on the border between two small towns right now, we have the closeness of other people without the convenience of city streets. We can at least walk to the corner store, but it's a good number of corners away. The thought of quiet country acres and a peaceful oasis sounds great. Of course, I imagine a yurt like this golden one above and not the one to the right. There's something to be said for bricks (as the little pigs knew).

9 comments:

CL said...

You should have asked Denise and Reiney about their yurt. They were living in one they built in back of Tony Clark's house in Willi, before they moved to New Mexico.

C. Margery Kempe said...

I am the perpetually late Kate ™ as usual. Missed my chance again!

Gene Kannenberg, Jr. said...

Two words:

eeee

mail

C. Margery Kempe said...

What? We can't run cable out to a yurt? Of course we can and we'd have power and water, too. All mod cons!

Gene Kannenberg, Jr. said...

I meant, "You could e-mail Denise and Reiney"...

Anonymous said...

I love all that blond pine in your dream yurt - reminds me of a Finnish cottage!

C. Margery Kempe said...

I think you're right, Marja-Leena! It has that look and certainly that would appeal to me. We'd have to have a sauna nearby.

Susan said...

It's funny because I look at pictures like that and think, "Wow, that's incredible. Wish I could do that. It's *so* functional.". However, I also know my reality is full of books, cats, bits and scraps of paper, mail, cooking equipment and gadgets, etc. I know that I would become rapidly frustrated as the piles grew to fill every space available. Hence we're now living in a house twice the size of the previous one. *laugh*

C. Margery Kempe said...

I know, I know -- it's an idle daydream, but I like to think of having a place where there is no clutter, no piles of things to be sorted, no boxes. We're living in a tiny house and there's just no way to avoid the pile up. So I dream...

If I had a house like yours (well, I'd be broke!) I could fill it up, oh yeah. It wouldn't look as good as it does now for long!