6.Once you confirm that a cord length of 11 inches works for you, you may as well go ahead and cut a whole bunch. In total you’ll likely need nearly 900 pieces! Using a candle, you should melt each edge somewhat to prevent fraying.

7.You should now have an upside-down V lying on the ground. Grab a third 16-hole slat, and slide it underneath the second slat so that the second hole in the first slat lines up with the second original hole in this new slat. This new slat should be lying parallel with the second slat. Tie it in place the same way as before. Make sure that all future slats follow the same pattern; all bottom slats have 16 holes and go from bottom-left to top-right, while all top slats have 8 holes and go from bottom-right to top-left.

8.The next slat gets placed underneath the first one and tied at the third hole, etc. Keep on going until each hole in that second slat has a crosswise piece affixed to it. Since you have 8 holes, it should take you 8 top slats to get to the bottom hole of the second slat. You should now be able to visualize the top of the wall with 8 slats lying parallel on the ground pointing from bottom-left to top-right with one crosswise slat lying on top, joining them all together. You now have the beginnings of the wall; it’s time to give this section an end on the right, so that when the wall is standing upright, the ends are aligned vertically. Moving to the right for the moment, tie four more (8-hole) slats in place parallel to the second slat. They should be pointing from bottom-right to top-left. The original top holes in the bottom slats should always be joined to top holes in the top slats. At this point, the top of the right bottom slat and the bottom of the right top slat will show you the extent of your wall toward the right.

9.Finish the right end of the wall section. Now is the time to start using slats from your reject pile. Select one 16-hole slat. Counting from the bottom of the slat, saw it off about 3 inches above the seventh original hole, tie it in place moving toward the right, pointing from bottom-left to top-right. Saw off a second slat 3 inches from the fifth original hole, and tie it in place to the right of the previous one. Take a third slat, and again, counting from the bottom, saw it off 3 inches above the third original hole, and tie it in place. This completes the bottom slats. Select one 8-hole slat from your reject pile, and counting from the top this time, saw the slat off about 3 inches below the sixth hole and tie it in place from top-left to bottom-right. You will notice that the bottom hole intersects nicely with the last three-hole slat lying on the ground. Now, take another 8-hole slat, and counting from the top, saw it off 3 inches below the fourth hole and tie it in place. Now take a third slat and saw it off 3 inches below the second hole and tie it in place. This should finish your wall off nicely to the right.

10.Now that you start seeing the pattern, you can tie them together in any order you wish moving to the left. To make life easier, you can lay out the 16-hole slats remaining in the pile in advance. You will want to finish with the last full slats in such a way that the last full bottom slat is joined with the last full top slat at the fourth hole when counting from the top.

11.Finish the left end of the wall section. End the wall by selecting three 8-hole slats from the reject pile. Saw the first one off 3 inches above the seventh hole, counting from the bottom of the slat, and tie it in place from bottom-right to top-left. Saw the next one above the fifth hole and tie in place and the third above the third hole. Select a fourth 16-hole slat from the reject pile, and cut it off 3 inches below the sixth original hole and tie it in place. Now take the longest of the off-cuts, and saw it off below the fourth original hole and tie it in place, and a last one sawn off below the second hole and tie it in place.

12.Repeat steps 5 to 10 for the other two piles. These three walls will be joined together when setting up the ger so they overlap slightly.

Making the Doorway

To complete the wall, we now need to create the doorway, which will be tied between the wall sections to complete the full circle. You can create this doorway any way you wish, but below, I will describe a most simple one.

First we need four 4- and 5-foot pieces of timber, about 1/2-inch thick and 4 inches wide. These pieces can be cut from the 11 yards of timber listed in the materials section.

1.Create an L-shape. Join two 5-foot pieces of timber together with screws to form an L-shape. Repeat with the other two 5-foot pieces. These two L-shaped corners will form the door posts. The narrower side faces inward, while the wider side faces to the back of the doorway (into the future ger).

2.Complete the rectangle. Attach one of the 4-foot pieces of timber to the bottom of both door posts, joining the two pieces together using long screws. If you use very soft wood, pre-drilling the holes may help prevent splitting. Do the same for the top so you are left with a sturdy rectangular door.

3.Create a lip on the door. Now, prepare the top of the door to receive roof poles. First, create a “lip” by attaching one of the 4-foot pieces of timber to the top at the front of the doorway with screws.

4.Cut 4 notches to hold the poles. On the last piece of 4-foot-long timber, cut four 1-inch-wide notches, pentagon in shape with parallel lines about 1/2 inch deep, the first one 2 inches from the end, and the other 3 separated by 1 foot from each other, which ought to leave you with 2 inches left.

5.Attach the notched timber. Fix the timber with the 4 equally spaced notches alongside the lip we created in step 3 with screws. They don’t have to sit adjoining, so, somewhere in the center will do fine. This will give you a frame for the roof poles to sit in above the door.

6.Attach tie-rings. At this point, you want to fix 3 plate tie rings in each side of the doorway, facing outward. For extra strength, I use bolts. Position them as follows: the first, 3 inches below the top, a second about halfway up the door, and a third 3 inches above the bottom of the door. Repeat for the other side of the door.