Thanks for the encouragement. I'm documenting the process of getting established on virgin, mountain land in photos and videos. I'm hoping to have a specific YouTube channel on the yurt compound we're establishing. Unfortunately, the internet is so slow, it's impossible to upload decent quality videos.
If you're on Facebook, I'm here:
https://www.facebook.com/martin.foster and I'm able to post our progress there in photos and short videos. Hit me up if you want to see the progress.
One thing I'm learning about living here is we need multiple redundant systems, especially for basic survival in extreme weather. So for electricity we've got electricity (grid), a diesel generator, and a battery backup. We have a few small solar powered devices but no solar array yet. It may not pay off to get solar, as it would in a country with high-cost grid electricity.
For heating/cooking, we can use electricity, propane, wood, pellets, and cow dung. People laugh at cow dung (I did at first) but it's exactly what Tibetans have used exclusively for thousands of years for cooking and heating.
Propane is nice but it's quite expensive at about US$1.10 per liter here. Electricity is cheap but if you heat a large area just by electricity it'll add up. We were paying up to $225 per month in the coldest months for electricity in a 110m/2 (1200 sq ft) rented house before we moved here. Unfortunately that particular house had no other means of heating or cooking. A wood stove would've been nice.
We're getting used to tolerating large temperature swings from evening to morning. Keeping a fire going all night is too difficult. It was hard at first to leave a warm bed when the inside temps were low - close to freezing - but we got used to it. First person out of bed, makes a fire and within minutes, it's toasty. The idea of having indoor temps at a constant 22C/72F all year round is something we've had to give up on and that's ok. I need to toughen up.
My hobby is essentially solving all the problems (challenges) of mountain living. It's fascinating. Well, I also have motorcycles and do some enduro style riding in our area. Also, I have an electric mountain bike which is awesome for the terrain around here. Mongolia is essentially one big grassland (steppes) with intermittent mountains, forests on the north facing slopes and some cold desert in the south. You can ride or drive for days off road as the countryside is mostly common land. Large fenced off land doesn't really exist, thankfully.