Mole Mountains on Cedar Pond

~Isn't this mole cute ? Story book moles usually are cute, and I borrow every cute mole story from the library, yes, they are usually in the children's section. I love borrowing children's books and collect them too. I digress. Anyway, I especially borrow stories about moles to bring home and show my Hubby. That would be called teasing...and that is what I am doing when I show him the books, I am teasing him. You see, Hubby is at WAR with the moles and he is not winning. "Male moles are called boars;females are called sows. A group of moles is called a labor." Wikipedia ~The snow has melted away and the weather is a bit balmy. I opened our bedroom window and took a look and my eyes were drawn to the mounds on our lawn. The frozen and snowy and stormy days did not deter moles, no, no, no...they were even more industrious!"Moles can be found almost anywhere in North America, Europe, and Asia, although there are no moles in Ireland." Wikipedia ~Look at these mole hills, they are becoming mountains. At least in Hubby's eyes. These mole hills are erupting through turf, rock, and the tunnels have caved in large sections of our lawn,orchard, and sheep pen. I have seen my sheep step in a mole hole and stumble, I have also done this."Moles burrow in lawns, raising molehills, and killing the lawn, for which they are considered pests. They can undermine plant roots (YES!!) indirectly causing damage or death. "Wikipedia I also read that William III of England died of pneumonia he got while suffering the result of a fall from his horse who stumbled in a mole hole. See!!!!!Moles CAN be deadly to people! ~Our wise state has banned these traps. Here is a mole we caught awhile ago with a trap. She is kind of cute, and her little hands and feet look human. The mole fur is thick and soft and velvety. Hard to believe these little creatures can cause so much damage, and so very quickly."A mole's diet consists of earthworms and other small invertebrates found in the soil. The mole may also catch small mice at the entrance to its burrow.Because their saliva contains a toxin that can paralyze earthworms, moles are able to store their still living prey for later consumption." (Eeew, sounds like an ongoing underground horror story!) "They construct special underground larders for just this purpose; researchers have discovered such larders with over a thousand earthworms in them. Before eating earthworms, moles pull them between their squeezed paws to force the collected earth and dirt out of the worm's gut." Wikipedia Are you hungry yet? ~As I say, though we do get a mole now and then, they are winning and it is not pretty!"The Star-nosed mole can detect, catch and eat food faster than the human eye can follow(under 300 milliseconds) Wikipedia ~The phrase "to make a mountain out of a mole hill means to exaggerate a situation"but believe me, we are not exaggerating when we say the little buggers are making little mountains and tunnels all over our place and capsizing much of our lawn, orchard and sheep pen.I think they want to take over our place. One day we will awake to find our home has sunk into a vast underground mole world....maybe we will end up in the mole larder....with the worms! ~For Hubby's 50th birthday I threw him a surprise party with pesky moles as the theme. I brought mole traps as decorations and people joked him about it, but he still has the war with the moles going on here, and I think it will be going on for all our years here. Poor Hubby. I just might check out the children section of the library this week, bet there is a new mole story. Blessings: that moles are not big as us, Hubby the valiant mole hunter