Many people have asked why we did this. Why would my husband and I sell our home, car, ATV, snowmobile, furniture, why donate over 90% of our belongings and move into a yurt, in Maine no less? You might be surprised, because the reasons were really not all that unique: debt, unhappiness, and lack of fulfillment with where we found ourselves in life. What was unique was our solution.Join us as we strive to achieve our dream of becoming debt free by drastically altering our lifestyle and building a low cost, DIY yurt. A Year in a Yurt follows us as beginners while we tackle our first year from construction through a snowy Maine winter in our tiny house while we battle insects, heat, cold, and occasionally each other in a search for freedom through living in an alternative, solar home. Learn from our decisions made to solve a multitude of problems from solar installation, types of toilets, what to cook on, how to plumb an indoor shower, and more as we strive not just to survive but to be prosperous and self sufficient in our new homesteading lives.This book is full of photos with more available on line to better illustrate what life is like in less than 500 square feet of space and living in a cloth sided yurt! Autumn (also known as Weifarer and Autumn M. Birt) is a travel and fiction writer currently based in Maine where she lives in a small cottage lost in the woods, which she built with her husband and with the supervision (and approval) of two Cairn terriers.With a Bachelor of Arts degree from Bucknell University in Studio Arts and English, Autumn once considered a career in illustration. However, an ecology course at Virginia Tech led to a Master of Science degree in Ecology and Environmental Sciences from the University of Maine in Orono. After graduation with her M.S., Autumn has worked for the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service. This was a great job that not only let her help the environment and protect local agriculture, but also gave her a paycheck big enough to support her writing habit until finally … at long last she is now a full time writer and on-line educator!
