Criminal Minds--Morgan style

I hate moles.  Almost as much as I hate hot dogs which is saying quite a lot.  Without fail every spring/summer some nefarious mole decides that the Morgan lawn offers up some tasty treats and he reeks havoc on our lawn.  It pretty much makes me crazy.   We did a bunch of research on it and tried various things like mole "repellant", flushing them out, chewing gum down the holes, etc.  Epic fails.  So about 4 years ago I got fed up with this annual infestation and called up the mole dude to come and eliminate the problem.  (Those of you who don't condone animal/rodent violence may want to stop reading at this point--because by "eliminate" I mean kill those little suckers.)  So Mole Man shows up, sets his traps and a few days later, voila--dead mole!  The only problem with this is that it's like $200 for the guy to do it so I talked him into teaching me how to catch them and now I'm pretty much a pro.

Now, at this point you are asking, why in the heck is she writing about moles?  Good question!  Because it's been a good example this year in how I am turning things over to the kids and teaching them responsibility!  The thing is--setting the traps is a little bit tricky--you have to have some muscles (which I do but they're lady muscles that are good for like lifting cute weights and rearranging furniture.) You also have to have a little patience in finding a good spot and getting the trap positioned the best way.  But I figured that it might be a good learning experience for my kids.  Plus, I don't do dead rodents.  Disgusting.  So I figured that if I offered a mole bounty this could be a win-win situation:  my kids earn some money and learn a valuable skill and I don't have to mess with a mole carcass.  (Seriously disgusting.)

And so about two weeks ago one of the boys and I went out to set the traps.  We figured out the best place (we thought) to put them and my manly son (he prefers to remain anonymous because mom blogs are sort of embarrassing I guess) dug the holes and set the traps.  At this point I think he thought this was going to be a pretty easy $20.  He was wrong.  Because moles are smarter than they look--and if you've ever seen one you know they look pretty stupid.  And ugly.  So the next day, the kid goes out there and sees the trap is sprung--excellent!  Except, no mole.  At this point, he pretty much decides to give up but I figure this is a great lesson in resilience and seeing something through to the end right?  So I instruct him to move the traps and he sets them again.  Now, here is where the mystery begins.  I know--you're dying from anticipation...

At this point, my son heads out to camp for a week.  (Dang it--now I've narrowed down the suspect list for you!)  So a few days later I go out to check the traps and one is missing.  Like there's a big ol' hole in the ground and no trap.  So I'm thinking maybe it went off again and my camper noticed it before he left and maybe pulled it out or something.  Except I can't find it anywhere.  And I looked a mediocre amount.  Which is a lot for me.  So it started making me crazy.  Where is the stinking trap?  Because they aren't super cheap and I still want that mole caught.  Anyway, we wait the whole week, my son comes home and tells me he didn't do anything to the trap.  At this point I'm thinking somebody-like some mole lover-- stole it.  And here is where the detective work came in--and thanks to watching Criminal Minds way too much McKay cracked the case.

Kennedy comes in and tells me that there is a mole trap in the back yard--yet the trap was set in the front yard.  We go out and check and sure enough--there's the trap--with a decomposing mole in it.  SICK!  Using his great sleuthing abilities McKay deduces that the trap went off, killed the mole, an animal happened upon it, dug it up and drug it to the back yard!  Case solved and mole caught!

So what did I learn from this about my children?  First, my kids are capable of doing hard things.  Second, this was a great lesson for my son in seeing a job through to the end and it was a great lesson for me in letting him do that.  My natural tendency would have been to reset the traps myself after the first misfire but I let/made him do it.  And finally (and more terrifying) , I learned that apparently I have larger animal problems in my yard than moles...