Horses, cattle, sheep, working dogs, cowboy hats, spectacular sunsets, wind across the prairie… and a yurt.

Kevin Hall and Mindy Bower are living their dream on a working ranch on the high plains of eastern Colorado. They raise cattle, sheep and working dogs… and they live in a yurt. In 2007, when they bought their 27’ yurt from Colorado Yurt Company, they thought it was going to be a temporary living space (until they built a more-traditional home).

Here is their story:

We bought the yurt in 2007, after we had sold our place with a 5 bedroom house. We bought another piece of land but it had no place to live.  So we lived in a camper for a month until we decided to buy a yurt.  

We had a little herd and so a yurt seemed an appropriate dwelling.  We joked about getting a yak so we could live off of yak milk and lamb!  

It took us a while to get the yurt deck finished and the floor in, then we had a few friends over and put up the yurt in a couple of days. We put in the wood stove and the waterline, and little by little it started to be a home. We had been without running water in the camper, so it was a glorious day when we got the sink and the shower!  

This will be our ninth winter in the yurt, and we can’t imagine living in a traditional house.  We love that we can hear things going on outside… birds singing, sheep baaing, horses galloping, cows mooing and of course the 15 dogs!  The first big prairie thunderstorm with hail was a bit unnerving, but we realized the yurt could endure.  The hail wrecked the vehicles and the metal roofs on the barns but didn’t do anything to the yurt.  It just bounced off.  It is a real treat when snow slides off the roof- like being inside an avalanche but safe.  The wind just seems to sweep around it, and it never feels vulnerable. 

The cool thing was to find a company right in Colorado that manufactured yurts, with a great website full of cool photos and easy information to place an order.  It was delivered and the directions were easy to follow.  We loved working with Colorado Yurt Company.

We never got a yak but we have many more sheep, and we happily reside in the yurt.

Visit Kevin and Mindy’s website: www.uhohranch.com to see more photos of their animals and land.