Brianna

Posted on May 6, 2018January 20, 2019 by Brianna — 2 Comments

How to Make a Wooden Composting Fence

Wooden composting fence with espalier fruit trees

Ever heard of a composting fence? If you want to know how to make a composting fence you can click the link below for our first design of a wire mesh composting fence or scroll right on past this intro for our tutorial on making a wooden composting fence.

I discovered the concept of a composting fence a few years back and Adam so kindly surprised me with the construction of a wire mesh composting fence at the previous house. We could only find a quick reference in an article to what a composting fence’s purpose was and had to figure out how to build it on our own. The wire composting fence was cool, it worked, and we made some awesome instructions and a detailed tutorial on how to build your own composting fence (linked for your convenience).

Fast forward to now: Larger house, looootttttssss of yard waste: As in I have never seen so many sticks, I don’t even understand how the sticks keep appearing level of yard waste… Along side those sticks we have renters as neighbors. The current renters are nice, but they brought some um… interesting… items along with them. I’m not sure who moves an old pile of wood covered in a blue tarp and a large cable antenna hooked to nothing, but they did. I will admit I didn’t really want to see the stuff cause (I’m snotty like that and will pretend I don’t have hardware cloth scraps hanging out in the backyard at the moment). True story, the last renters were arrested in our front yard so I have other reasons than just aesthetics in wanting a bit of a border between the houses. The solution? Wooden Composting Fence 2.0 to the rescue.

Now to the meat for those of you that skipped the introduction:

How to Make a Wooden Composting Fence

There is one important piece you must understand about a composting fence before we continue:

It is meant to SLOWLY compost yard waste. Very dry, mostly carbon material. NOT your food scraps, wet items, etc.

Why? The items in the composting fence break down only at the ground level and never get hot like a nitrogen/carbon balanced compost pile. That being said, it is absolutely great for slowly feeding plantings around the base of the fence. It also takes care of a lot of things you might not put in your compost pile. Larger sticks, roots, lots of leaves, weeds, are all great to throw in there and those tend to take forever in the pile.

Tools and Supplies for a Composting Fence

Let’s just state this right up front: We use copper treated lumber. We have done a lot of research about the dangers and positives of using treated lumber. Not all treated lumber is created the same so we suggest reading the beginning of this article to decide if you want to use treated lumber. For untreated lumber applications I suggest finishing your fence waaaay higher off the ground so none of the boards come close to ground contact, coating your wood in some fashion, using locust or cedar wood, or using our previous design that utilized much less wood and more metal. Otherwise be ready to replace your wood every few years.

Composting Fence Supplies

The supply list (may contain affiliate links) and directions cover how to make one panel of a wooden composting fence that is 5′ and 7′ wide. The pictured panels range from 5 to 6′ tall and 7′ wide. We built on a sloped lot and stepped them down accordingly over time. We have 7 panels shown in our photos. Why? Because that length covered the neighbors property and allows us to give a good wide spacing to espalier 4 apple trees, 2 peach trees, and 1 plum tree.

2-bags Quikrete: (May not be ncessary to concrete each post if you have hard clay soil and/or you are attaching many posts. If you plan to espalier fruit trees you will need to be able to attach wire and the weight of the trees over time which is why we opted to concrete our posts in.
2-4X6 posts (trust us, you do not want to pay for larger sizes
4-2X4 boards
22 – 8′ Dog Ear Fence Pickets I would suggest buying 2-3 extra in case you break or mis-cut one.
24-3″ screws
130-1.5″ screws
Water (Mix with Concrete)

Tools to Build Your Composting Fence

Post Hole Diggers
Post Level
3′ Level
Table Saw
Miter/Chop saw (Optional, but fast for cutting ends)
Gloves (Unless your hands are like tanned leather)

Step One: Post Assembly For Those Blessed with Upper Arm Strength

The first step is to get the posts assembled and in the ground. You are going to need upper arm strength all around, and if you don’t have it (I don’t) then there is equipment you can rent to dig post holes. I will also mention an alternative for post construction for those of us with T-Rex arms.

1. Dig a whole 2-3 feet down. Post holes are best dug wider at the bottom than the top. This keeps the concrete solid in freeze/thaw conditions. You can read more about elegant post holes here. Frankly, we just try to dig them down and level.
2. Assemble your massive post. Here is where I would diverge from the usual directions:

Adam, being the manly man, takes the 4X6 post and attaches the 2X4 boards to either side to make a massive with the 3″ screws (4 per board at least) The final assembled ‘tree trunk’ like post is close to 8″ in width which allows space for pretty large sized yard waste. He could just pick up this giant honking post and position it in the hole.
I can barely move the 4×6. If I was doing this by myself (note: I wouldn’t), I would HAVE to place a 4 X 6 post in the dirt and concrete it in. Once it was set I would then add the 2X4’s to either side above the ground level. So keep in mind how heavy the post gets!

Step Two: Leveling and Setting The Tree Trunk Post

I’m not going to go into details about how to set and level a post because there are a ton of tutorials that already teach this technique better than us. We pretty much follow this Quikrete tutorial (Written tutorial link here):

Couple things that make this job a bit easier are post levels because it makes getting both levels front to back a snap. Trust me it is worth the extra money for the ease of leveling. We also use 2-3 cinder blocks to hold the post in place while it sets. We had them on hand and found it easier than using boards to hold them because you can make minor adjustments by nudging the blocks slightly.

Final tip: If you plan on doing a whole long line of panels you will want to do the following.

Dig a small post hole and set a temporary post in dirt only at the end of where you want one straight course of panels. (this could be the end of the fence, where it turns, etc) You can even use a 2X4.
Tie a string to the temporary post and bring it to the first post you plan to set.
Attach it (we used a screw) around the post so that the string lightly lays along the face of the board on both ends. This makes sure all your posts are facing the same angle and makes attaching the boards easy!
Concrete your first post and continue down to your second post aligning it to the string as well.
Once you have your Second post close to correct make sure to lay a board on top and make sure the height is level from post to post!

Step 3: Prepping Your Fence Face

If earlier you wondered why the fence pickets are 8′ but the fence panels are around 7′ well here is where you find out the mystery. You have to cut the dog ear portion of each picket off first. We used out miter saw to do 4-5 at a time. After making a nice straight cut you will want to measure how long to make your boards. You have two options:

More than one panel: Measure from the end of the first post to the middle of the second post. Measure in a few places. If your post is truly straight and level the distance should be the same. If not you can make micro adjustments on your cuts to get a nice straight line for the next panel.
One Panel: Measure edge to edge. Again measure in a few places to make sure all the lengths are the same.

Cut your boards to the correct length. Each side will need the following:

7- Full sized boards
6- 2″ boards (3 full sized boards)

Total (20 boards! 10 for each side)

After that you will run three of the boards through a table saw to make 6- 2″ pieces. Note: try to find pickets with the least number of knots to run through the table saw. Those tend to break or kick out.

We hate lumber waste! We are using the extra 1.5″ to make garden stakes and markers and the extra foot or so to make native bee houses.

Step 4: Attaching the Fence Panels

The composting fence needs lots of light and air to flow through it so that the contents can dry and compact. No one wants a wet-rotting mess for a fence. In order to do so you will need space between each board. There is an easy and hard way to get the space correct. You can measure in between each board OR you can take some scrap wood and cut 2-3/4″ wide spacers. Trust us, the spacers are easier! Two people make this job sooooo much easier.

Take one full sized board and line it up with the edge and top of your first post. Your partner can do the same with the second post. Check to see if the edges line up nicely (either at the edge or middle depending on your design)
Use two 1.5″ screws to attached the board to post one
Repeat on post two
Yea! Your first board is up. Celebrate with a local brew! (okay no, you have a bunch more to do)
Take a two inch board and put a spacer underneath the first board to keep a nice 3/4″ space.
Use a single screw to hook both ends
Panic because the middle is sagging like crazy!

Alright don’t panic! You will take and extra fence picket and attach it to the middle. Measure down to the ground from the center and cut a picket. Use two screws to attach it flat in the center of the first board. Then use your spacer while a partner pushed the 2″ board into place and affix with a screw.

Repeat this process down the entire front of the fence, then continue these directions down the back

NOW: You can celebrate with a brew! And throw in some sticks!

Final Tips & Techniques

For more than one panel always measure your lengths front and back. It can look level, be level, but a slight twist means a few boards might need a little extra or less cut off.
If you are stepping a fence down we found stepping down a full and 2″ board makes a nice attractive step down.
Don’t forget the boards at the top of the step down will be a lot longer than the ones below
When you are done don’t be afraid to add a small board along the bottom if the step down made the height off the ground look… wonky…

Now all you have to do is throw in all your leaves, sticks, and brush! Our 7 panel composting fence will hold almost 150 cubic feet of yard waste! Meaning we won’t need to have the city haul off the brush and leaves our regular compost pile couldn’t handle anymore.

Posted on April 11, 2018January 20, 2019 by Brianna — 7 Comments

Modern Chicken Coop Custom Design By US!

Modern chicken coop design that we custom built and designed

The custom built, modern, chicken coop is finally here folks. I quit totaling hours, cost, and number of minor flesh wounds received somewhere back in March. Building a custom chicken coop is definitely a labor of love BUT you get an end result that can REALLY meet your needs. We chose to make a modern chicken coop design to match our urban locale. We needed something fresh to update our 1927 home space and to compete with all the new modern houses in the neighborhood.

If you are more a video person we made a video tour of the features and construction of this modern chicken coop design on our YouTube Channel. (Also embedded in the post for you convenience)

We had some specific needs in mind with this modern chicken coop design. First, our chicken coop needed to be predator proof, easy to clean, lots of space, and aesthetically pleasing. We live in an urban environment with a good mix of old houses and very modern structures. This means we can’t let the chickens roam all day but that we can build a modern looking structure and still have it blend nicely with the 1927 house. If it looks large in the pictures, that is because IT IS. It is hooouge… 14 by 7 feet in the main structure alone. The u legs of the runs are 4 feet wide and 6 foot and 10 foot long respectively. This gives us slightly more space than needed for 14 large chickens. If you are thinking of making your own coop I have a series of chicken calculating spreadsheets that I will make available soon for everyone to use.. We want to keep the chickens in a location with above standard size spacing since the whole point of raising fancy backyard chickens is to have a good environment for their egg production. Happy, healthy chickens make yummy eggs.

Modular nesting boxes for easy cleaning — Nesting boxes and roosting bars all come apart for easy cleaning and replacement

We also planned the chicken coop with our neighbors in mind. We are highly sensitive to our neighbors needs, simply because it seems like the neighborly thing to do. We wanted to make it look good and smell decent because, frankly, I would want that type of thoughtfulness from my neighbors as well. Plus, I have to look at the chicken coop and smell it all the time too!

We probably keep our coop a bit cleaner than most to reduce flies in the city. I also plan to plant lots of herbs around the coop to deter insects and cover smells. Plus who doesn’t love the yummy scent of mint, lavender, and thyme? This modern chicken coop design incorporates a lot of neat features to make cleaning a breeze. Double coop doors with a linoleum under sand make raking our droppings a breeze. Roosting bars and nesting boxes are removable for thorough cleaning. Run doors and human sized runs make raking out wood chips for final composting a lot easier. (Note: Behind the structure I am building a couple compost bins to hold old litter we usually remove a few times a year and replace fully with fresh litter. I am super excited to graduate into my own building projects!)

Red, black, and grey detail shot of our modern designed custom chicken coop — Plus, who doesn’t want to look at this awesome modern coop design back when scooping poop? It is honestly my favorite part of the coop!

Safety was paramount to the entire design. When we first moved over to our new home we had chicken issues abound (You can read our tale of chicken woes). Plus I have had enough bear encounters for a lifetime! Remember how I said urban? Yeah we have an odd urban bear population in the mountains… These bears seem to like chickens an awful lot. Anyway, we did as much as we could to deter predators.

First, the structure has cemented posts to anchor it to the ground. Then we wasted ridiculous amounts of money to bury hardware under the entire structure. It kills me to spend money on something you are just going to hide but the hardware cloth keeps digging predators out but allows the thick layer of chips to slowly compost while in location. Half inch hardware cloth and metal roofs cover all exposed surfaces. These are anchored with screws and washers instead of staples. It takes a lot longer to install but really stands up to random dog attacks. All the external doors, including the nesting boxes, have wooden stops to make sure they can’t be easily pushed in and to minimize small gaps in the frames. We used heavy duty slide clasps and hinges for the same reason. If we end up having raccoon issues we can add bolts or locks to the clasps to make sure they can not get in.

Natural roosting bars for our modern chicken coop. — Roosting bars are strapped in over vinyl floors to make easy cleaning!

Chickens, outside of their will to die by predator, are actually pretty self sufficient when grown. You really just have to offer protection from major elements and lots of ventilation. The coop location is meant to assist with both. Our climate is more often cold than hot. That being said August is not the most pleasant. We set the coop back in a U shape of vegetation (called a sun scoop in permaculture world). In the winter they get sun at different sections of the coop throughout the day. In the heat of the summer they will get morning sun, but shade from the worst afternoon heat. The large windows can be closed in the winter to allow more wind protection but open in the Spring, Summer, and Fall to allow for lots of ventilation. An underfloor ramp allows for fresh air all year around but cuts down on wind. Finally we took the time to line the roof of the coop. That way chickens on roosting bars couldn’t come in contact with cold metal and get frost bite or hot metal and overheat.

Finally we wanted to make this easy, fun, and accessible for our enjoyment. This area was formerly an overgrown dog lot. The kids liked to play down in that area as it is shady in the Summers, but even they stayed away from the overgrown infestation of English and poison ivy. We beat back the wilderness and have all manner of edible and aesthetically pleasing plantings planned for the area. We left cleared around it and plan to have nice paths down and around so you can enjoy the plantings and sit and watch the chickens. Lots of doors and human sized runs allow us to go in with the chickens and easily pass them treats and eventually let them into the yard to hang out. The nesting boxes make for quick egg retrieval and plenty of space to leave the broody ones alone. Finally, we made much of the area view-able from the house so we can always just peek out and see how the ladies are doing.

Overall we are stoked with how it turned out. Now to get our last batch of chicks old enough to join the rest of the flock! Hopefully the chickens will enjoy it just as much as the humans.

Posted on December 9, 2017January 20, 2019 by Brianna — 1 Comment

Reaganskopp 2017 Christmas Tour

Details of candy colored glass ornaments and retro style tree topper for Christmas.

Let me start by saying I’ve done a lot of Christmas tours in the past, both virtual and real life. A lot of them have been more elaborate. But considering that this tour barely even happened, I think you will still find loads of holiday cheer.

I had truly planned on decorating a single tree and being done with it. Especially, as we are doing some travel that will cut into decoration enjoyment time…. But then I thought about the kids and how this might be the last Christmas McClain believed in Santa Claus and decided to put up some decorations and stockings. And then Adam found a really cool tinsel tree on special… And then we decided to have a Christmas party next week… So yeah, we ended up decorating the whole flipping house. And since we went to all that trouble why not share a virtual tour?!

SO it all starts with getting a tree. This year we got smart and planned ahead with a blanket and gloves. No more resin on all the things! And yes, for reference you can fit one giant, mother loving, live, tree and six people in a van.

Afterward it was just a case of bringing out the felt woodland Christmas decorations. Notice how I left all the fiddly parts of Adam getting the live tree in the stand and in the house out? Meh… No one cares about that!

I was still in let’s pare down Christmas mode this year so I didn’t go crazy on the garland. But might have gone crazy with the lights.

Over 900 lights to be exact. I maaaaayyyy also have added another felt Christmas bird (or two) this year.

I did get all the stockings up. So far they have only been knocked off the mantel say… 10,000 times by the kids.

We did felt Christmas last year with probably a little more umph, but I think they held up well. The kids love the little vignettes I set up with the animals; because everyone needs to have felt birds playing chess on their bookcase.

After the felt Christmas tree was up in the main living room it was time to set up the amazing new tinsel tree. Since it was a skinny tree we thought it would fit perfect in the sitting area in the master bedroom. Frankly, it kinda became my ‘tacky’ tree. I don’t actually think it is tacky, I think it spec’tack’ular in all of its retro glory!

The boys helped me find that amaze-balls Christmas tree topper in bright retro colors!

I started by trying to google how to decorate a tinsel tree so I do something classy but it was like once I got started throwing on shiny stuff I couldn’t help myself. Classy has never been my forte. There are layers of tinsel on the tinsel! Because one can never have too much tinsel. Then there are glass birds and ornaments in bright candy colors.

It literally GLOWS at night.

And because that wasn’t enough I thought why not add more color and set up my favorite colored bottle brush tree collection.

At that point EVERYONE in the household was in thrall to the flurry of Christmas appearing throughout the house. There are table runners, and snow globes, my Mother’s fabulous hand made stockings. These stockings are a labor of L.O.V.E.

Each boy has their own handmade felt Christmas stocking. All of them are hand pieced, hand beaded, and even hand fringed. I’ll be honest I wouldn’t have the patience to achieve these, but ‘Granny’ sure did. Check out the tiny details.

Since we had gotten this far in the decorating it seemed only fitting to finish it up with out favorite geek-fest: Our Star Wars Christmas Tree.

Last year we created all the ornaments (with how to make handmade Star Wars Ornament tutorial) and this year we added a new R2D2 stocking and some Star Wars inspired apothecary jar.

Yep, that is a BB-8 tree topper. But we try to give props to both sides of the force.

Oh and lest I forget, we added some more lights!

As you can see we are a big fan of lights at the Reganskopp household or at least I am and Adam seems happy enough to oblige. We hope you enjoyed the virtual Christmas tour and got some inspiration for your own shiny, felted, nerd Christmas. Merry Christmas from Craft Thyme!

Posted on October 8, 2017January 20, 2019 by Brianna — 24 Comments

Make a Indoor Rabbit Hutch From a China Cabinet

What?! A twenty-five dollar Craigslist china cabinet becomes what?! An indoor rabbit hutch. Perfect for your pampered bunnies.

Want a rabbit hutch that looks elegant? Well, we did! We wanted to DIY an indoor rabbit hutch for our new family members Ollie and Biscuit. We got these rabbits from Adam’s work as a co-worker’s friend was trying to rehome her bunnies before embarking on a lot of travel. You might wonder how we decided to get some rabbits and it went something like this:

Forwarded email from Adam: Want to get some rabbits?

Me via Instant message: Ummmm… Sure?

Adam via IM: The boys will love them.

So we have rabbits. All kids need pets, right? These rabbits needed a indoor space… We are talking adorable, cute, pampered, litter trained, indoor rabbits. So we needed an adorable, awesome, and elegant space for the rabbits. Queue the DIY indoor rabbit hutch. We found an old china cabinet on craigslist for $25 that just said: refab me into the most awesome indoor rabbit hutch ever!

Of course, this china cabinet wouldn’t fit in any car we have… Because that would be waaaay to0 easy. So, thanks again Richard, for helping deliver said china cabinet. (No really THANK YOU! I have had rabbits in the middle of my living room for two weeks…)

In comes the china cabinet and before you can even say “DIY indoor rabbit hutch” Adam has already ripped out the middle glass panel. So yeah, no picture of that! From that we did a lot of measuring, talking, internet research, and experience from having the rabbits. Our main goals:

More space with interesting areas for the rabbits
Something that looked good in our house
Reduce how much litter, hay, and rabbit pellets end up all over the floor
Provided good ventilation for the buns
EASY TO CLEAN! (Brianna’s major requirement)
Make it quirky and interesting

We designed the bottom hutch space to hold litter pans and sleeping areas. There are ramps that go up to an eating area. Above that are two more levels with a timothy hay tunnel, chewing twigs, and toys for fun. We created areas for the hay to stay in the hutch and planned how to make this easy to clean!

Once we had the ideas sketched out we just got going! It took minimal supplies. Affiliate links may follow:

DIY Rabbit Hutch Supplies

1 – 1 x 8. UNTREATED. We used it to cut the ramps and grips. Make sure it has no chemicals that could harm the bunnies.
Hinges: We bought three hinges so that the ramps can be to clean. They simply push up so we can just sweep and litter out from underneath
Peel and Stick Tile 13 – 12 x 12 We lined all the shelves with peel and stick tile to make it easy to sweep bedding, litter, and bunny poops out of the hutch.
1/2″ Hardware Cloth (Chicken wire or other metal wire would work. Indoor rabbit hutches don’t have to protect the rabbits from predators like an outdoor hutch would)
Screws & Staples

Additional Supplies (Optional)

Paint (We made our own chalk paint with this awesome recipe we had used before)
New Knobs: Oh yes, that is a rabbit knob! We happened to find three awesome knobs on sale for $2.50 at Anthropologie (Trust me I am too cheap to buy anything there full price)

Equipment

Drill
Saw

Optional Equipment

Miter Saw
Jig Saw
Skil Saw
Hand Sander

Transformation Steps

For this build we really winged it. Adam used a skil saw to cut out holes for the ramps and a jig saw as a I wanted a fancy opening on the bottom. Yep, that’s me, “Can we cut this center panel out?! It will look hella cool and ventilation… But mostly it would look awesome…And RABBITS!” Once the rough holes were cut, Adam, ran a quick sand on the pretty rough cut holes so the buns wouldn’t get hurt on rough edges. We didn’t worry about beautiful cuts as we were going to cover the floor in tile anyway.

Painting a Indoor Bunny House

As soon as the holes were cut on the DIY indoor rabbit hutch I went to work on the paint. The cheap wood finish was pretty intact in the interior of the cabinet so I focused on a rustic look. The green came from the deepest green of a painting we have in the living room. Those poppies were painted by Adam’s grandmother and one of my favorite paintings. (Poppies are my fav flower… Now if I could just get them to grow!)

Painting that inspired the green diy rabbit hutch — Love this painting!!!!

Homemade chalk paint decorates an indoor bunny house — I actually taped for once!

Ramps for Rabbits

Adam made simple 45 degree cuts on the end of each ramp. He just measured from holes to floor and took a guess on length. He made small cuts to make the treads and give the rabbits something to grip while climbing. Quick nails to hold everything together and then sanding to make sure none of the rabbits could get hurt. We bought some hinges and connected them to the end to the end of each board and then to the inside of the rabbit hutch.

Other Items

Rabbits need lots of good ventilation (according to the internet :)) and make lots of poop (real life experience). They also need free access to lots of timothy hay and water. To accomplish all of these we did the following:

We used heavy duty staples to affix the hardware cloth to the open panels.
We lined all the shelves with peel and stick tile. My hands will never be the same after cutting all that tile to fit the space! BUT poop clean up is as easy as sweeping it out of the shelf an into the trash.
We drilled small holes to hold hay feeders along the back solid wall (helping to reduce the hay all over my living room)

After that it was simply a case of setting it in the living room and adding some fun toys like willow sticks and timothy hay tunnels!

OH! And before I forgot. The lovely lady who gave us the rabbits also gave us a metal rabbit playpen for them to run around in. We added hooks to the back of the DIY indoor rabbit hutch so that we can simply hook the play space on. We open the bottom door and let them run around. Being litter trained the worst I have had to clean up was a few hard bunny presents from the living room.

In Practice with an Indoor Rabbit Hutch

We LOOOOOVVVVEEEE having something nice in the living room. It allows the kids to interact with the bunnies and keep them as part of the household.

I might be a bit of a neat freak (As some people might have mentioned, Adam) and super sensitive to smells! So I am psyched to be able to just renew litter easily and keep it from floating all over the house. A cage was just allowing them to kick litter everywhere! I just can’t stand a smelly animal space and want something that is super easy to clean and this fits the ticket.

Details of additional rabbit play space on our indoor rabbit hutch — They also have a play place!

Also, I honestly am over the moon about how cool it looks. The green was perfect and looks great with the painting. The chalk paint gave it a soft matte finish that keeps the color fun but not overwhelming. I, frankly, would be happy with just a china cabinet that looks this good! But it is even better as a nice home for Ollie and Biscuit!

Before and after of a Craigslist china cabinet turned into an DIY indoor rabbit hutch — Before and After

Posted on September 1, 2017 by Brianna — Leave a comment

September Report

Craft Thyme cucumbers also called mouse melons

Here at Craft Thyme we focus most of our efforts on creating quality tutorials. There is a lot of planning (Adam), work, photo editing, grammatically poor writing (Brianna), and general craziness that goes into making a useful tutorial. We love doing it and our readers seem to enjoy the efforts but there is so much more that goes on behind the scenes!

Did you know that we both work full time outside of the home?

Did you know that we have a combined household of 4 amazeball kiddos and two ferocious kitties? (Don’t ask about the chickens… insert sad face here… Spring will see a new coop!)

Did you know I came home to a pelting of water balloons this week?

Did you know we have supplies to completely redo our entire front sidewalk and landscape, plans and supplies to build a sweet composting fence, and are working on a permaculture-principle inspired plan for the property?

Which got us thinking (Ut oh). Despite being pretty private people perhaps we could let everyone in a little bit on what goes on behind the scenes. The idea is that at the beginning of each month we let everyone know what they may have missed (Hint: Instagram/ Facebook) AND what our plans are for the coming month. It is a little for you (Because who doesn’t want to know I was in a beer stein holding contest last weekend. Spoiler: I lost). And a lot for us so that we can keep track of what we are building, crafting, and gardening.

Craft Thyme beer competition — Here I am losing a second time at stein holding.

We will break it down to the pertinent sections so you can skip to what you want to follow along in.

DIY

It is Summer, which in Craft Thyme world, means 90% of our DIY is outdoors. Yes, my kitchen is still atrocious, yes, the kids bathroom still is pink, blue, and some shall not be named cream color, and yes, the treadmill is gathering dust. (Not exactly DIY related but just one of those failings) BUT there is outdoors!

Butterfiles
Warm Breezes
Mosquitos (oh wait that’s a negative)

So, we build outside. We built the first level of some hella cool tiered garden boxes that we still need to write up a post about. And because we got such positive feedback we went ahead and wrote up the timber and pea gravel stairs into a nice tutorial.

Cause why stop at 1? Still have one more 8′ #raisedbed to go! On this level!!

A post shared by Craft Thyme (@craftthyme) on Aug 4, 2017 at 4:29pm PDT

Let’s see… Adam changed out a toilet seat so we finally got rid of that awesome wood-70’s vibe toilet we had going on. I cleaned like a mad woman after having the house cleaned because OMG! the kindergarten teachers come out and visit your house to meet your kids in this day and age.

We are kind of reaching the end of Summer in the mountains so we are flummoxed as to whether to continue on the beds, start on the composting privacy fence, start on the sidewalk, or head indoors and work on the sun porch… One of these things will be happening this month!

Crafts

It feels like I should probably not call this Craft Thyme this month. I think I might have sewn some super hero pillows but that may have been in July… September is not looking so good on the crafts either because any of the above projects are going to take …drumroll please… more digging. Digging is tiring, goes faster with two people, and does make up for the lack of treadmill.

I do want to get some minimal fall decorations up in September. I used to love decorating for each season but renovating this ~~beast of a~~ lovely home, keeping 4 kids alive, and working the day job is the most I seem to be able to manage lately. So I am shooting for at least a crafty fall wreath this month.

Gardening

Oh gardening… Well I have a lot of cucumbers at least… The aftermath of the great groundhog wars left the garden in shambles. I’m JUST now getting ripe tomatoes, pulling carrots, and picking cucumbers. They had to have ample time to regrow their leaves after the groundhogs decided to pillage and destroy. The kohlrabi, beans, all the brassicas…ALL THE BRASSICAS, squash, melons, pumpkins, peppers, and and some flowers just did not make it through the ravaging. Le Sigh… Perhaps next year. I toyed with the idea of doing a fall/winter garden but just didn’t get it done. I may throw in some garlic but will just plan it all out and start again next year. I need some time to build up the soil anyway.

We did write a guide on prepping your raised beds! It has served us well and worked really nicely through some very dry weather we had at the end of the summer. Once I get some compost all worked in these should be really set for next year. Our experimental method seems to hold water very well but still allow for good drainage. Getting that optimal miz has been a real trial and error through the years.

I plan to get the raised garden beds all prepped for the fall/winter so they are set for a nice and fruitful growing season come spring. Our big plans for this month are to clean out that end of summer ick from the garden. All the wasted spindly plants… Weeds that have crept in… I mean just look at this sad garden. At least it looks like the zinnias I threw in at the last minute will manage to bloom before frost.

Craft Thyme late season garden — OMFG can you see this?! Weeds, pests, just general neglect… Must. Clean. Up.

Lots of building, cleaning, and prepping in the month of September. We will work on getting the raised bed tutorial up at least. Additionally, I have been doing a ton of research on permaculture and edible perennial plants. I hope to share some in-depth guides by the end of the month so you can get fall bare-root trees in place and plan for the spring!