Farm & Washi Tape Answers & Thanks!

Hi All...

I've gotten several questions about farming and Washi Tape over the few days so I thought I'd answer them all in one post.

FARM ?'s

What's the difference between hay and straw?

Hay is made from a combination of various grasses, legumes, or other forage type plants which is grown, cut, allowed to dry and then baled.  This dry forage can be fed year round either by it's self, paired with green pasture grass, supplemental grains or any other combination of the above.  We use it to supplement our pasture and as a full time feed during the winter when our pasture is covered in snow.    We also sell some hay to area farmers (with beef & dairy cows), folks with pleasure horses, goats, and to the Amish for their horses.

As a side note hay doesn't necessarily have to be dried to be used as a feed.  If you're set up for it, hay can be "put up" green (while it still has moisture) to be used as silage.  There are reasons for using hay vs. silage but it gets complicated so I won't bore you with the details but I didn't want you to think that hay was the only type of feed for animals.

Straw on the other hand is the stalk of a dry grain such as oats, hay, etc.  Once the grain has been harvested depending on what type of combine was used you could have rows of the stalks left over.  These left over dry stalk can be baled and used as bedding or if ground up as a feed supplement.  We use it as bedding for our cows and also sell small quantities as well.

What else do we raise on the farm? do we raise corn?

In addition to making hay the guys also have a field of soybeans (which are sold to a local elevator); wheat which was combined and sold and the straw. 

We haven't grown corn in several years for a few reasons ~ a few years ago we did plant a field of corn but we had a terrible drought and the corn didn't grow.  The past couple years the price of seed corn and fertilizers have gone through the roof making it more expensive for us to plant/grow corn than the returns would be.  We're "small time" and don't get the price breaks or subsidies (government money) that the large farm operations do.  We do it all on our own so we have to make choices on what we can raise efficiently and the most cost effective. 

Do we have any other animals besides the donkeys?

We have a few Hereford cows & a bull.  We raise them for beef and while they aren't registered they are a continuation of the registered blood line we started with many years ago.  We aren't "certified" organic but our cows don't receive any growth hormones or unnecessary antibiotics and are fed only hay and pasture land with a bit of corn fed during the winter to supplement the hay. 

We would give our cows antibiotics if needed to cure an illness but (knock on wood) we've been disease free and never had any trouble in the past.

WASHI TAPE ?'s 

Where did I find all of my tape at?

I have been collecting tapes for many years now.  I have picked up much of my tape on sale usually when the next wave of new stuff comes out.  It might not always be new but hey, if I like it I'll still use it even if it isn't the latest and greatest trendy stuff out there.

I recently bought several styles of tape that I had to buy as a wholesale type lot (the postal & Steampunk tapes plus a few others).  I am going to be posting the extras on my Etsy store soon but I only have a limited quantity of those sets.

What am I storing my washi tape on?



I am using 10" screw lock rings which are used for fabric samples.  I got them from an auction when one of our sewing customers went out of business.  They had several huge 12x12" fabric swatches from various companies and they were all on these wicked rings.  I knew I could use both the fabric and the rings so I bought them all for $1.00 (nobody else bid!!).  I guess I was pretty lucky as I see they are pretty dog gone expensive.

Once I put my tape on these rings, I don't even take the tape off to use, I just pull off the amount of tape I want when needed.  It works like a charm and I have all of my rings hanging in one area so I can see at a glance which ring of tape I want to use.

Who doesn't like washi tape?

I don't know but some folks were marking the "No Thanks" option on some of the washi posts so I figured they didn't like the tape.... or they didn't like my ideas.  Either way, I know not everyone likes everything out there but I like to vary my projects, supplies used and ideas to keep things fresh. 

Hopefully if you don't like one idea/product/project you'll stick around to see what's coming next.  I try to make something for everyone.

And....

Thanks to everyone who posted or e-mailed anniversary wishes to my dh & I!