Now that sustainability has become mainstream, with politician spouting green jargon at every opportunity, I find it very reassuring to see Mongolian recycling every time we open a new container. Our yurts come wrapped in a huge variety of scrap fabrics – from odd pieces of felt pushed in to stop the paintwork getting damaged, to gorgeous soft wool knitted ‘throws’ – which have become ponchos for the yurt guests. Last time he was out, Peter shopped for bags in Ulaan Baatars Black Market and was fascinated to see stalls specialising in selling absolutely everything – our yurts are even labelled using old exhibition passes – it’s certainly made me step up my recycling approach – it’s quite good fun and a sort of mental puzzle (perhaps that’s why the Mongolians are so good at it) to keep thinking of ways to use items that would normally end up in the bin. My current favourite is the inside of cornflake packets for sandwich bags. On a bigger scale we use every scrap of wood we fell – right down to the sawdust from the mobile mill being used in the compost loos. And we were delighted to be able to offer the village hall the half round ‘off cuts’ where the tree goes through the mill, to fence their grounds. Our offcuts of canvas and pvc from making the rain caps go to a variety of new homes – the local school art department, Woodcraft and Steps, a local charity. 
Hidden Valley yurts is getting steadily booked up – we are loving having guests – and now that the bulk of the building work is finished, it’s great to be able to focus on improving what we offer – from information (which of course means I have to visit each of the places we recommend – such a hardship!) to new facilities. Much as we wanted the field to remain as natural as possible, we have had to add some stoned paths as the steep terrain got incredibly slippery in the rain. They are all going to be covered in bark – which (no surprises) is being stripped from the larch we have felled – apologies to this weeks guests who have only had the stone – but it just went against the grain to go out and buy bark when we have it growing here. Just need to find the time to chip it.
Sorry, long blog this month – but it’s been a busy time – and of course this is cria birthing time again – so I couldn’t resist adding a photo of our latest 3 – and thanks to this weeks yurt guests who supplied the names – from left to right the babies are: Theo, Josh and Amiee. 
