By LEAH WEATHERSBY

For months, Lake City residents Betty and Jesse Hall's lawn had been terrorized by an unwelcome neighbor or neighbors. Every day, Jesse Hall would look out his window and inspect the cretin's handiwork.

"Look, there's Mount Rainier. There's Mount Baker," he would say.

He was speaking, of course, of mole hills, the small mounds of dirt that are the telltale signs that moles have been constructing their homes - an elaborate series of chambers - underground.

Both retired, the Halls liked working in their yard and during the 35 years they'd lived in the house, they'd seen plenty of moles come and go. Their neighbors have had the same problem. But this mole had been around for months . Whether it is because of particularly tasty earthworms underneath the Halls' property, or whether the soil is particularly warm and cozy for burrowing under, isn't known. The mole could not be reached for comment. However, one thing was clear: he, she or they weren't going anywhere.

"Why don't you put signs (on the mountains)?" Betty Hall joked with her husband. To her surprise, he did.

In late summer, Jesse Hall started making wooden signs to label his "mole mountains." So far, he has16 out in his front yard and he's still making them. The signs have garnered the delight and amusement of many a neighbor and a passer-by. The Halls' property is located along 37th Avenue NE, just north of NE 127th Street.

Meanwhile, neither the home remedy of putting garlic in the mole hills or the presence of the Halls' cats have done anything to deter the lawn's tenants. It's a good thing there are still plenty of mountain names to go.

"'We have two cats who don't want any part of it - they don't want mole breath," said Betty Hall. She added, "I don't know how you'd kill them -they're pretty wily." (