Barley bale Summer Adventures at the lake

Summer adventures this year have included the new discovery of BARLEY BALES on the lake. After having relatives out one evening in June, my brother-in-law, the organic farmer, suggested we try putting barley bales in our lake to help with some summer lake algae.

So the next week my neighbor and I decided it was time to try it and go get some organic barley bales at the Grain Place farm nearby on a hot summer morning. We had no clue where this adventure was taking us, but we knew it was better to try it sooner rather than later! And the time was now!

After loading up her pickup with 12 barley bales (sounds like 12 barley loaves from another story) with the help of my brother-in-law and nephew trying to find 12 whole barley bales in the barn, loading them and tying them down, we headed home proudly and then to the nearest farm store to try to find some plastic mesh or fencing, cord and stakes to wrap them and keep them from floating away. We headed home again with our wonderful hardware purchases to share with our spouses that evening and enough for another neighbor too.

Our excited husbands helped us find various ways to wrap them, stitch them, stake them and float them near our shores and clean the water so we could see the bottom again near the shore. So far the natural enzymes seem to be working and keeping our lakeshore cleaner just as they have for hundreds of years in countries abroad like Scotland I discovered online! Little tiny barley bales are now sold in pond supply stores at $8 each to clean up little ponds to my amazement!! And there is a whole lot of barley bale information I had never dreamed of before on the internet.

The ducks and turtles seem to enjoy the bales as a napping spot, a stopping off place or as a diving board! We earlier had tried submerging them with concrete blocks but discovered they just liked to float in the sun. So we are starting to enjoy the look of barley bales floating in the summer sunlight in the water!

The latest challenge was last week when one of our barley bales floated loose. We decided to go in search of it in our canoe. This was after another one had gotten loose a few days before and our neighbor had found it by his dock. He was reeling in as his "catch" laughing with us at the same time we were asking if he has seen it.

This morning though, I had noticed when I woke up that one of the barley bales was missing again! So I announced this to my spouse and all day we wondered where it had gone and we talked about it on our day off together! I even threatened to go get more barley bales and supplies to replace our lost one since it was no where is sight. We even called our two next door neighbors to see if they had seen it floating by and no luck.

Finally toward evening, we decided to get in the canoe and see if it had sunk to the bottom of the lake from being waterlogged by now. We wondered if we could be able to see it underwater or if it had just floated away to the east or west somewhere...... so we headed EAST. After paddling a ways, we came around the corner and there was our lost barley bale resting on the beach of a neighbor about five houses down. My husband spotted it first and we headed toward it after enjoying finding it first for a few moments.

Now our options were to put the wet and soggy barley bale into the canoe or to drag it behind our canoe. We opted to drag it behind but it was trickey going forward at all with a saturated barley bale dragging behind -- so we went slowly despite our zealous paddling efforts.

As we neared home, our neighbors were standing on their bank laughing with us and at our very slow rate of travel.... and rejoicing in finding the lost barley bale! It is one way to get to know our neighbors and learn about organic barley bales and try to solve problems together --- (and to think that organic bales of barley from the farm had meant nothing to me a few months ago and now they enhance our landscape every day.) We have four of them by our beach area and there are 12 of them in our bay now enjoying the sun and keeping our lake a little cleaner! Thanks David!

I will try to include a photo of the barley bales today (and maybe more in the future) --- which look like some kind of minimal art project in the water this summer. Perhaps it is our summer art water sculpture project with the help of nature and an adventure with the neighbors and the ducks! We have had tons of enjoyment from of our 12 barley bales and our experiment together this summer. We are just glad that we were able to find some organic barley bales nearby thanks to the two year old barley bales at the farm and David's advice one summer evening.