Mole eradication

Here in our little part of South West France we seem to have a lot of moles, people spend vast amounts on trying to get rid of them- traps, bombs, poison and tubes that make a vibrating noise are a few.

As we don't have an cricket pitch lawn and we live in the country we don't fret at yet another mole hill coming up through the grass. We did have an adopted German Shepherd, Bella left by the previous farmers who was an amazing moler with a quick snap they were gone. Milo and Franklin never got the hang of moling they were always too late but never less would proceed to dig up the mound left so not only did we have hills, (which the moles work hard making excellent finely tilled earth for potting plants) but large holes (which had to be filled in by the hills).

But now we seem to have new molers of the feathered kind, probably not a nice way to go for the mole but at least they made a meal for a few fowl. Yesterday morning while clearing up around the farm I saw one of the chickens with a dead mole. Not sure if it was dead before hand but made for a flurry of running chickens as they followed the chicken with the gourmet nugget.

Later walking through Gorgons field there was the old duck with something in his beak, yep a dead mole. Not the same one (it wasn't as mangled as the first!) I then watched as it tried to swallow it, it took a few attempts but he got there in the end. The thought of having to perform the Heimlich maneuver on a duck did cross my mind as I stood and watched for a few minutes, no chocking so I guess it went down.

So those chickens and ducks are not that endearing, yes they do eat slugs, snails, worms and bugs. Small birds have been seen in beaks, mice and small rats go down well too. We once had a duck hatch out a clutch of ducklings under a pampas grass, very cute I invited our gite guest to come and show his toddler son as we then watched the mother swallow a duckling whole. "do they do that often" he asked. "not that I'm aware of" i replied. I guess it was natures way of eliminating the ones that are not going to make it.

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2ENJ093 - FRANKLIN

Eight years ago today Franklin came into our family, a rescue dog from the SPA in Rodez we drove to see if they had a dog to re home. He had been there a month after being left tied to a bin in the town centre, chosen because he didn't bark, he came to us to say hello and was completely different from the dog we had lost days before Christmas. 120 Euros he cost, a young boy still a pup, very thin but with a look of take me home please. A collar put round his neck, forms completed, cheque handed over and a kiss from the manager and he was ours. Five minutes down the road in the car he threw up. Five minutes in the house and he had weed up the settee and collected an assortment of treasures including socks, toilet roll inner tubes, tissues and soft toys all placed in a pile under the table and garded. He ate at an amazing speed, fearing he would loose it to our other dogs. Then he started to bark, he has a fine bark on him. He barks for his tea, when a visitor arrives, the ...

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The English Paysanne

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