North House Folk School

For most people, a visit to North House is a chance to follow their curiosity, whether it’s trying a brand-new skill or continuing a lifelong passion for craft. For others, a trip to North House is even more consequential: the opportunity to not only learn a new craft, but to create their next home. North House offers several Shelter and Timber Framing classes each year, from yurt building to build-your-own timber frame courses to building Thoreau’s cabin. Over the years, many of these structures have left the North House campus to become not just a house, but somebody’s home. 

One such home is the yurt built by Brent Holiday and his partner Maija. Brent and Maija moved to Cook County in 2022, and since December, their primary residence has been a yurt built at North House. Prior to moving to Minnesota, they lived along the coast of Maine, where they worked on schooners, farmed on their homestead, and ran their own essential oil distilling business. While there was much that they loved about Maine, they were also far from relatives and wanted to be closer to Maija’s family in Minnesota. At the same time, they were reluctant to leave their small-town coastal setting with its opportunities for sailing. That’s when they learned about Grand Marais: located in Minnesota, along a coast, and about the same size as their town in Maine. It even had a schooner. 

Brent and Maija moved to Cook County from the coast of Maine. Both of them have experience sailing and farming, and run their own essential oil distilling business. 

Sure that this was the right decision, Brent and Maija found a piece of property in rural Cook County where they could continue their organic farming. They moved in August of 2022 and spent the next few months living in a tent while installing solar panels and clearing a driveway on their property. However, winter was fast approaching, and they needed a more permanent living solution for the cold months ahead. Their plan was to build a log cabin, but it was becoming apparent that this plan would take longer than they had anticipated. That’s when they learned of an opportunity to take part in the Build Your Own Yurt class at North House. 

“My partner’s parents were signed up for the yurt course but they got waitlisted,” Brent said. “But then they got a notification that the people in the course had dropped out and they were next in line. They asked if we wanted to join them, and we decided that this would be the perfect opportunity.”

The yurt starts to take shape in the North House Boat Barn

Brent and Maija got to work on building a foundation for the yurt, with a plan to live in the yurt over the winter until they could build their log cabin. The class took place in early December 2022 with instructor Ian Andrus. In this course, a small group of students signs up together to construct a yurt over the course of four days. It’s an intensive class that includes everything from woodworking to heavy-duty sewing. By the end of the course, Brent, Maija, and her parents had built a yurt that was ready for its new home in the woods. 

“We got the yurt up just in time before the big snowstorm in December,” Brent said. “It was midnight and I was sealing around the stovepipe for the storm the next day.”

The yurt in its new location on Brent and Maija's property

The yurt has allowed Brent and Maija to put down roots in their new home and start building a future as Cook County residents. Their hopes are to resume farming and sailing, to get involved in the local community, and to follow their creative interests, including taking more North House classes. 

“The folk school was a big part of moving here. In Maine we had the WoodenBoat School and were excited about the folk school here, as it aligned with our interests,” Brent said. “Specifically with the road we live on, it seems like everyone lives in a timber frame house or yurt, most of them built through the folk school, so it’s been really easy to meet people and find things in common.”

You can find all of North House’s courses on our website. Courses can fill quickly—be sure to subscribe to our eNews to be the first to hear about new course releases.