15.Place the canvas back over the roof. It should fit quite loosely. The reason we left the roof cover a bit bigger is to account for possible shrinkage as well as to allow the shape of the ger to differ somewhat as the exact size and shape of the ger will never be precisely the same. When you’re happy with the fit, remove or roll up the roof canvas to allow you full access to the wall lattice.

Making the Wall Canvas

1.Measure the canvas. Using clamps or safety pins, temporarily fit canvas around the ger. You’ll want the canvas to start at the right side of the door and travel all the way around the ger to the left side of the door. If you have it to spare, it’s wise to leave an extra foot or so in length. Make sure that the bottom of the canvas reaches the ground comfortably, perhaps even with a couple of inches to spare. When your wall canvas hangs properly with the clamps, cut off any excess, take the cloth down and hem the top and sides to prevent fraying by doubling over the edge twice before stitching it together.

2.Create attachments. Hang the canvas back up using the clamps and use spare webbing to create loops at the top edge. The loops need to be big and long enough to fit over the wall lattice and, once looped on, allow the canvas to hang properly. A loop created out of 3 inches of webbing is usually enough. You shouldn’t have to create more than a dozen or so of these loops. Once the loops are in place, you can remove the canvas from the wall and use the sewing machine to liberally stitch the loops to the canvas.

3.Finish the wall canvas. Hang the canvas back in place over the wall for a final fitting. If you wish, you could fashion a method to attach the canvas to the doorframe, but I’ve never found this necessary. If it all fits as intended, hem the bottom of the canvas by folding a 1/4 inch of cloth over twice and sewing the fold together.

Finishing the Ger

1.Place the roof canvas over the roof, and ensure that it is sitting evenly and overlapping the wall canvas with the foot-wide band. Use the webbing strap we created when measuring the roof canvas and fit it around the top of the wall, just below the bottom end of the roof poles, pinning both the wall and roof canvas in place.

3.Measure two more straps. Measure out two more cords or webbing straps, each of which will be fixed to the plated bottom and middle tie rings at one side of the door, run all the way around the ger, and then be tied at the other end of the doorframe. The middle one will wrap around the center of the wall to keep the wall cover from blowing about and to allow you to rest your back against the wall. The bottom one will stop the canvas from lifting up with wind and should be about 4 to 6 inches above the ground.

4.Create two roof straps. For high winds, you should also measure two cords which will loop over the roof and be pegged down to the ground. When viewed from the door, the first one will go from the left rear, over the front of the roof, to the right rear, forming a U-shape. The second one will go from the left-front to the right-front, but over the back of the roof. The finished picture below shows the ger with these ropes in place. In high winds, the wind can lift the roof up, much like a plane wing generates lift, before dropping it again and repeating the cycle. This regular up-and-down slamming can damage the roof ring, especially if it is a wooden one. The ropes pegged to the ground will usually be enough to prevent this from happening. In really severe wind, a piece of wood (a strong stick or timber pole will do) can be placed on top of the roof ring with a rope tied tautly between the middle of the piece of wood and a sturdy peg in the ground. Once, during a severe storm, I experienced two or three fallen roof poles with a noticeable lean to the ger the next morning, though I might have been able to do a better job on those anchoring lines and I did not have a rope going from the roof ring to a sturdy peg into the ground.

Usage and Adaptations

I use the ger described above for extended camping trips, emergency shelter and for teaching courses in. I provide heat and light with an open fire in the center, right underneath the roof ring. The above ger, therefore, is described with this type of use in mind and is as light and basic as possible.

Door—For weight-saving purposes, we didn’t actually make a door to fit in the frame we created. You could make a nice door to fit if you wish, but with the way I use the ger I have never really needed one. Instead, I have always covered the doorway with a curtain made from the same material as the canvas wall.

Stove use—The roof hole is left open to provide plenty of space for smoke to escape through. You could adapt it by integrating “hoops” into the roof ring, over which canvas or clear plastic can be placed. This can be either removable (to provide ventilation) or permanent roof cover. The hoops are there to prevent water from gathering on top of it. You could further adapt such a cover over the roof ring to accept a stovepipe so a wood-burning stove can be used. There is special material available online, usually referred to as a “fireproof flue adapter,” which is designed to act like canvas (waterproof and flexible) yet tolerates the heat generated by the stove flue. If this is what you wanted to do, then you’d only have to cover a quarter of the roof ring cover with this material in such a way that the stove flue does not touch any wood, canvas or plastic.

Of course, a wood-burning stove can be placed in other parts of the ger rather than right in the center, provided you keep it at least 3 feet away from the walls and you integrate a fireproof flue adapter as mentioned above.

Insulation—The design above also relies on the canvas alone for insulation, and as such really only protects against rain and wind. You could improve upon this by placing space blankets over the frame before tying on the canvas, although this will create a rather surreal look inside the ger. If you found the sewing easy, you could even create a duplicate canvas made out of space blanket material, lined on the outside with thick fleece. In that case, you’d have an inner layer of reflecting material, a mid-layer of insulation, and an outer shell of waterproof canvas. These changes make the fabric of the ger more susceptible to fire damage, so extra care would be needed.

Windows—It’s relatively easy to use clear plastic to create windows in the canvas, increasing the amount of light available.

I have to confess, I absolutely love taking a ger into the outdoors. There’s something about the round shape of the lattice wall and the roof poles converging toward the center that is really pleasing to the eye and induces a relaxed state of mind. Added onto that is the sense of accomplishment in having created such a good shelter by hand from raw materials. On a more practical level, the ger provides a lot of living space, which can be utilized in many different ways. Bedding, seating and work surfaces can easily be accommodated, while temporary shelves and hooks can be fashioned to use the walls themselves for storage. And who doesn’t enjoy sitting around an open fire? If you do have an open fire, placing a stick over the roof ring and then suspending a hook from it with a strong rope will allow you to hang pots over the fire for cooking. When I’m teaching courses in the ger, I use a cast-iron Dutch oven to cook stews for all participants in this manner, followed by hot water for dishes.