Monday, August 1, 2011

So how are you doing this summer?

Kind of cute don't you think? Well, for me not so much. While things were better than usual ( I have a service ) the Japanese beetles visited my yard yet again. Six weeks of picking these things off my roses and and killing them on an individual basis has not put me in a good place. You can probably imagine my state of mind when I began seeing little piles of soil and then trails of soil on the grass. I looked on the Internet and found some really strange and fun ideas for getting rid of these creatures. The strangest solution involves sitting very close to a mound or tunnel, put your ear to the ground and when you hear activity use a spade to pound very hard on the ground. Kills em every time, not!! Used cat litter has a lot of fans. How about moth balls? You can walk around with a pitch fork and stab through the tunnels until you get lucky and stab the creature. You can also buy a package of poison worms and hope you place them in a really good place.

My yard has become a sort of mine field. Don't want the children playing back there because sometimes these soil piles are hidden by the grass. Almost turned an ankle last week myself. So, I hope you can imagine that when I saw a sign last week in my neighborhood ( Got Moles? ) that I instantly wrote down the phone number. I'm getting old. I wouldn't have remembered. Mr Rosiere came right away, set several traps and promised to come back. I ran my errands and could not resist going into the back yard to have a look. I stood there for just a few minutes when the trap nearest me snapped shut and then directly to my right another also snapped shut! Now is there a mole in either of the traps? I am not going to look. I was told that I probably only have one or two moles and wouldn't that be cool to be done with these guys? I should be so lucky! Hope to get back to posting about quilts soon,

2 comments:

Sarah Jane said...

Moles make such an awful mess and whilst they seem sweet little creatures they really are not welcome. In France they are not worried about the humane side of getting rid of these pests and use explosive devices placed in the burrows. It does work but best used as a very last resort. I hope your visitors get the message soon.

Cindy said...

I've been reading your blog tonight. 32 years ago I married my husband, who happens to be a residual paraplegic who walked with two canes. Several years ago he had to switch to a walker, and now he's slowly transitioning into a wheelchair. I knew this was all going to happen, he told me, his doctor told me. I didn't know how hard it would be for me to watch. He doesn't complain, even when he falls 20 times a day, because he's too stubborn to use the wheelchair at home, and I know how much it hurts when he falls. We also have an intellectually disabled son, who helps his dad all the time. Now, just when I'm needed more and more to help him, I am having problems myself. I've been diagnosed in the last three months with degenerative arthritis everywhere, but especially my spine. I have 7 bulging discs in my lower back, I have neuropathy in my entire body and fibromyalgia is going nuts over all this pain! I was barely able to walk for 6 weeks. I do PT 4 to 5 times a week, and am having cortisone shots in my spine now, and they will move to other places as soon as they get the pain in my back under control. Do I understand your pain? Not totally, because I've always lived with it, but I can emphasize with you. Keep working on your quilting, and take care of YOURSELF!