NePoPo® Yurt Style : Learning in the Round
A signature structure on my property here in Montana is our 30’ yurt. This cozy 700 sq foot structure is used for lectures and training. For those unfamiliar with yurts : it is essentially a well engineered tent. The walls are insulated fabric and the skeleton is comprised of locally sourced lodgepole pine and lattice walls all held together by a single tension cable.
This particular yurt came as a kit built by my good friends at Shelter Designs Yurts here in Montana. I initially purchased this with my wife back in 2014. We wanted to live off the grid for a bit so we set this up in the backcountry and spent the next 2.5 years roughing it a bit. Living simply allowed us save some $ and make some moves in our careers. My wife wrapped up law school and we officially started ‘Run Your Pack’ as a full time business venture.
Fast forward - we had our first kiddo, Ember, and decided it was time to get back into a home we didn’t have to hike to get to. Oh and running water. We wanted running water again hah.
We landed at our current location nestled at the back of a valley that butts up against national forest and public land. The property was just what we needed to grow the business and the backyard had a perfect flat spot for our beloved yurt. We took the yurt down (over many trips with an ATV), sold off all our off grid components, and re set it up in the backyard to be used as a training space for students at RYP.
The space is a wonderful blend of indoor comfort while still being connected to the outdoors. It acts as a wonderful ‘aquarium’ to control variables during early stages of dog training and creates a nice socratic atmosphere for teaching with students arranged in a circle facing each other during learning and discussion.
Despite the rough roots from the past, the yurt now boasts a powerful AC unit for the summer months and a powerful wood stove for winter months. Could be -15 and blowing outside but our training dojo maintains a stable mid 70s all winter. The Yurt is just our basecamp building. The property also has a temperature controlled 30x40 workspace - but let’s be real. You want to come to Montana to work outside. Surrounding the yurt is rugged Rocky Mountain terrain. Perfect for tracking/trailing, shed hunting and general field search work.
Come to my yurt for New Gold School and leave with a ‘well rounded’ NePoPo® education (oh I’m punny).
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