Dietrick Klooster

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since Jul 15, 2019
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Central Indiana, zone 6a, clay loam
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Recent posts by Dietrick Klooster

Hello permies! I am about to run a small electric fence.(.1 joules for maybe 150 feet of two wire fence) It will go around a couple of garden beds to stop the raccoons from excavating, as their ongoing search for the biggest earthworm has caused us much strife!

One problem with my plan is that the area is under power lines right behind my house. I hear i need three ground rods 10 feet apart from each other and 50 feet from utility poles and my house electrical system. This wouldnt be possible without going clear to the other end of the property, maybe 100 feet from the fence, which seems like it could cause other problems. Does anyone know how much of a problem it would be to have these ground rods only 20 or 30 feet from these other systems? I have read other sources simply say "far enough" rather than give specific distances. Any advice on this matter would be greatly appreciated.
2 years ago
Jordan, I was chopping up a bradford pear for firewood last winter and saw some colors like your milled log, but don't have any idea what the grain would look like with a clean cut like that. Any chance that was a really old specimen of bradford pear? I don't even know if they live long enough to get that big.
3 years ago
What did you do to fasten the greenhouse portion to the coop in a secure manner? Is the cattle panel structure just fastened to the ground and supports, or is it in any way tied directly to the coop?
3 years ago
 Hello friends! I'm writing here today because my pickup truck, which I use to pick up leaf bags, pallets, and all sorts of other wonderful things, is out of commision. I rear ended someone at a very low speed, but the height of their bumper was perfect to bend in the bracket that runs from the top to the bottom of the grill. This damaged the hood, radiator, and fan. Maaco, where I towed the truck, estimates $4500 to repair this, $2500 if I leave out paint and other less crucial details, but I only paid $1400 for the truck. It is a 1998 Nissan pickup, very small but with sturdy suspension, and I am very partial to it, as it is very easy to work on when it comes to replacing parts like alternators, water pumps, etc., but I have never worked on an issue like this before. It also seems that any place I know to work on vehicles is beyond swamped right now
 I know Maaco feels it is necessary to replace the hood and brackets due to safety issues with a less than perfectly functioning hood, but I can't help but feel like It would be possible to attach some sort of ratcheting tension device to the offending bracket, pull it and the hood back to approximate shape, replace the radiator and fan, and then intelligently and discerningly find a less than perfectly convenient, but perfectly safe way to open and close the hood. Am I crazy? It just seems like a shame to scrap a vehicle that could be capable of living a longer useful life, but I don't want to sign myself up to for an accident, potentially harming others and myself. Does anyone have any experience with this sort of thing? I need to know whether towing it to a friend's house is a good idea, as we already have enough junk lying around and can't mentally and emotionally afford to have another unfinished project sitting around.
3 years ago
Hello Permies! I write you on this day to ask for your advice on bringing chickens out into their coop after they have been spending the nights in our house. It is already late October, but our chickens have yet to experience temperatures much below 50, being outside only during the day. We finally completed their coop today and and have them outside for the night, going down to 51 Fahrenheit, which is well within their experience, but the next few nights are looking quite a bit colder, with lows of 46, 36, 36 again, and then 31(below freezing) after that. This is obviously the natural weather for this time of year, but we worry they haven't acclimated yet, as they have been sheltered from the colder nights we've been having. We've been avoiding heating the house, so it still gets chilly, but might only go down to 60 on a 45 degree night.

Even though they are 5 and a half months old at this point, they also seem to be a little behind on their growth due to spending far too long eating feed contaminated by grain mites. Though they have gained some weight since switching to real food, we are still a little worried this stress has them a few steps behind on being ready for this winter. Could the combination of lack of exposure to cold and earlier malnutrition mean their feathers haven't grown in as fully as they need to? It does seem a little worrisome, these are our babies and we care about them very much!

So I have to wonder, does this seem risky to their health? If so what can we do to help make up for their lack of transition time? Obviously we can't continue keeping them inside. We are considering building a blanket fort above them to catch a little heat without inhibiting good air exchange with the more ventilated parts of the coop, but also wonder if there are any steps we could take that we haven't thought of.
3 years ago

Brody Ekberg wrote:I just watched that little video and laughed because of how accurately it portrays me trying to have a conversation with wife about these issues. Its like we’re on two completely different pages. And I feel like ignoring the nail is obviously the least helpful, most complicated and unnecessary way about the ordeal. But clearly, blaming the nail isn’t working either so maybe its time I try the approach that seems so absurd!


As someone who has wasted a massive amount of time and energy trying to be "efficient" at convincing my partner what she needs to do, hurting her and our relationship in the process, I can tell you that the practice described by John Wineland can be extremely helpful, no matter how contrived it might feel at first. I feel the same way as you do about the video with the nail, but also see that putting empathy first can actually make things happen in a much more efficient way. I don't think you need to "ignore the nail" at all, but what can help is realizing that someone needs to trust you before they are willing to hear what you have to say, let alone pull a nail out their head. Feeling heard and understood through practicing empathy is the most effective way to build that trust.
3 years ago
Hello folks! I'm writing here because my partner and I are considering a new location for our zone 1 garden beds. So many of our garden areas have wound up untended due to being too far from our house, and we would like to right that situation... The problem is that the area that makes the most sense to start is close to our our septic system.

This is not a standard septic system. There is a tank, but no finger system, only a dry well, which is a brick cistern that the effluent falls into, landing in the bottom of the small pit and draining between the gaps in the bricks. To me this seems worse for the ground water, but less likely to contaminate the soil that would be inhabited by annual garden veggies. In addition, we have been using a composting toilet for well over a year now. Only very small amounts of greywater and urine are moving through the system, and we only used our flush toilet for a few months after the previous inhabitant likely went without water for years. We also plan to build raised beds, but are not quite sure how much depth we will add at first.

I could be totally reckless, but this just doesn't feel dangerous to me. Is there some dynamic of soil that I should know about that would make this more dangerous than I think? I don't even feel like this would be a bad idea without using raised beds, but it seems like raised beds would definitely work, given that people often use them over soil containing lead and such things. What else do I need to know before making this decision?
3 years ago
Hello Permies! I’m trying to build a home with my partner, and want it to reflect our shared values. I hesitate to get too personal on an internet forum, but can’t help but think a lot of us must struggle with similar issues when it comes to relationships and personal growth in the context of homesteading. I wanted to share some of my experiences here in the hope that y'all might have some helpful perspectives, or at least that we might all feel a little less alone, as some of the struggles we experience might not be the same as those holding together a marriage while living a standard 9 to 5 type of life.

To start with, I began my journey toward self sufficiency by moving into a yurt by myself, and starting to learn to forage to supplement my otherwise nutrient poor diet obtained from budget groceries. I appreciated the freedom this provided me, allowing me to go long stretches of time without working a normal job. In the best case scenarios I was able to learn by experimenting with new ways of life, but the truth is I was dying of loneliness. Alcoholism took hold in my psyche. Ultimately, my freedom was not actually being utilized to learn how to automate greenhouses with arduino boards, or build semi portable rocket mass heaters to move about with my yurt and tiny house.

I developed a less than healthy relationship with work. Work was always something to “get over with”, at first so I could hang out with plants, but eventually so I could check out and start drinking. When I was drinking I could ignore the fact I was crippled by my inability to find a romantic partner. Eventually I got in the habit of thinking in my drunkest states that I was finally free from the burden of sexual shame and was no longer crippled by my fear of embodying the toxic masculine. I believed I needed to get myself out into public to take advantage of this state. Needless to say I eventually got two DUIs, after which I was put on court enforced sobriety. After two months sober I found myself able to profess my adoration for my current partner.

After a long, difficult journey living in backyards in my tiny house we finally found our home. Three city lots, beautifully overgrown and forgotten, with a small concrete structure, invisible from the street. We set to work, first acquiring the property through unconventional means, as the previous occupant had no heirs in the country. And then after months of legal gymnastics and learning to communicate with estranged siblings in France, we began the physical work, repairing a leaky roof and tearing out the water damaged interior, along with waist high stacks of the previous owners possessions.

I started out feeling like I could turn this into a beautiful memory, as I knew this was what my partner needed. Having more construction experience than my partner, I tried to turn demolition into a fun opportunity for emotional catharsis. But ultimately the grand scale of the project started to take its toll on our relationship. I started operating from my deadline based brain, trained by long chains of people in construction management positions. This culture has passed from one man to another and can probably have its origins traced to physical abuse by someone’s father.

When my partner would get tired, I was unwilling to stop, even though she had communicated to me that it was crucial to her that we take this project on together, not with me as some beast of burden, building up resentments as her father did in the process of “providing” for her family. In some cases she injured herself while working past her physical limits, while I refused to acknowledge that I was working past my emotional ones. Needless to say, by the time we moved into the house (not by choice but due to the department of sad being called on the tiny house), we were not as in love as we were when we first agreed to take on this project together. Furthermore the house was not even finished.

The tragic irony of this whole story is that in the process of trying to race to the finish line, one of waking up into a dream world of plants that provide for our every need, I actually made the whole process take much longer. More than two years after moving in, the house is still not finished, even though the two of us have been living off inheritance money while trying to make building this place our full time job. I see how the memories of the awful places I have operated from are built into the structure of our home. I see how that continues to hurt my partner all the time, so I know I must focus on healing our relationship and working at a pace that allows things to happen in a way that feels good so we can build good memories.

But I also see how far behind we are. We are constantly stressed by the jumble of areas in our home that still feel like construction zones. We have 12 week old chickens who have a secure run but no coop, so we have to bring them inside to a dog crate each night. I constantly struggle with being pulled back into my old ways of trying to finish things no matter how they feel, which leads to problems in the relationship, which leads to realizing we can’t possibly build a structure we plan on seeing for the rest of our lives until things feel better, which leads to being further behind, and the vicious cycle continues.

This finally brings me to a point that I think a lot of homesteaders must relate to. Both my partner and I have run into situations where we don’t know what we are actually committed to. Are we committed to each other, or to our shared vision for this land? Can we really separate the two at this point? I feel like my partner would have left me a dozen or more times by now were it not for the fact that she would have to give up her connection to this land as well. Sometimes when I tell her I love her, I have to ask myself a very difficult question. Do I love her, or do I love an imaginary version of her, one who lives in a world with no stress after I’ve finished all the tasks at hand, while paying no attention to her needs in the meantime? I want to be a person who loves her through all of our experiences, and shows that by healing all of the damage done by refusing to love past that imaginary version of her. I feel I am getting much better at this, but really need to work on all the triggers that pull me back into old habits.

I hope this hasn’t been too long of a rant, and that maybe someone else has something else to add to this topic as well. I also wonder if anyone who considers posting on the permaculture singles forum, or otherwise plans to start a relationship focused on these sorts of values, could learn anything from this story. It is such an important part of doing permaculture that we figure out how to stay with the land we are working, and part of that is knowing that we can be happy and attain our full potential there. My partner and I know that we cannot do this without feeling like our relationship is solid. None of our accomplishments with the land are nearly as exciting if we wind up feeling like mere roommates, needing to look for love elsewhere. I know many people out there must feel the same way.
3 years ago
When I was much younger than I am now, with no construction experience to speak of, I set out to move into a self built yurt to escape the trap of paying rent. Needless to say, I was told I couldn't do that. Questions like "where will you put it?" and "what about the winter?" were offered as if to be the end rather than the beginning of a conversation. To be honest they were right about the first question, at least at first. By that I mean I tried to set up on railroad land and experienced vandalism. Still I eventually succeeded years later after meeting a friend with an empty wooded lot and gaining some construction experience.

The most memorable doubts came from a sales representative I was trying to buy bamboo from. I wanted the yurt to be extra lightweight so I could carry it into that tucked away spot, and even though this person was supposed to be selling me something,  he said to me, "Don't you think if that we're possible, there would be no homeless people?" Which is a pretty great question to think about, really.
3 years ago
In case you haven't found another source, this is where I found the Nanticoke squash.

https://store.experimentalfarmnetwork.org/collections/squash/products/nanticoke-squash
3 years ago