pests and chickens

By now I had a full blown war against the moles that absolutely ruined everything I was brave enough to plant. Even the strawberries were beginning to struggle, but as their roots are not very deep, they at least did not wither, and every morning I put on my water boots and stamped the soil fast.
I got tips on how to kill the moles from everywhere, and tried them all. One of the most gory was to collect dog poo and stuff it down the holes, but me not having the strongest stomach, it was hard really hard going.  But the planting season was almost over, and I was desperate, so I covered my nose with a scarf, my hands with plastic bags, and commenced on operation dog poo.
I never had a strong stomach, and in my long ago youth I dreamt to be a nurse, and did indeed start on a course at the Pretoria General hospital, and loved everything, but when I was expected to clean up anything that smelled, I had to run for the toilet! I did stick it out for a year, and now that I am older and wiser, I knew that I would have eventually got over that shortcoming, and  as I would not have been a junior my whole life, the stinky tasks would eventually have dried up, and my juniors would have done that.
But for now I was retching away every morning collecting Laika, the kids's old dog's poo, and it did Not smell good, but I stuck to it, hoping that the moles would depart out of their own free will, or suffocate. They did neither, just made new tunnels, and it was so bad that the ground was spungy to walk on.
Then I tried drowning them, and stuck the hosepipe down the holes that opened above ground underneath stones and stuff, and they indeed hid somewhere else for a few days, and I yelled halleluja, and smiled again, and started preparing my veggie patch for the third time.
But when I started planting the new seedlings, I found that the little devils had again criss -crossed my patch, and a big heavy hatred took hold of my usually contented soul!
Then somebody told me to stick moth balls down the passages, and I raced to my co-op to buy some, a hunger for revenge nibbling away my serenity, and that afternoon I was furiously stalking around trying to find all the entrances. It was quite difficult to find the entrances, as unlike the real moles, this little creeper moles did not leave mole hills behind, and I did not want to leave them any escape roots.
After a few days there was no sign of the moles, so I again planted the seedlings that I could, as it was now too late for some of them.