moldy moles

Central Indiana is meeting autumn with a bit of an odd drought. It rained a lot this summer, and the temperatures have been surprisingly pleasant. But I think it has been nearly a month or more since it rained, and the ground is very hard and dry.

This has meant seeing shrubs with stressed leaves. Normally, we bump into fall with the wet cool explosion of summer's last blooms meeting fall's first chilled blasts. Not this year. The air is ok, but the ground is so very dry (an aside -- last year's Labor Day weekend brought 11 inches of rain in one day, which in itself was unusual).

And the areas I've watered, around my garden, have had the effect of putting up neon signs to moles, those fat pudgy little grubbers who like to tear up yards and eat bulbs.

I don't like to encourage Franklin to kill things, something that he doesn't need much encouragement -- he was bred to get rid of vermin like chipmunks and moles. And I have done nothing to stop the moles except for pushing their tunnels down in hopes of saving grass.

Alas, I am a wus.