Oak went to our subdivision’s “garden club meeting” a few weeks ago and apparently everyone complained to no end about the “deer issue.” In that, they eat everything in your garden. Until that point, we hadn’t really experienced the deer, besides the occasional visit from them to eat the acorns that fall off our 8 bazillion oak trees.
Well, I’m pretty sure an anonymous garden club member provided the deer clan a tip. Hey, the Millers have a garden full of YOUNG AND TASTY vegetable plants! Go check it out!
They attacked. Oak was crushed. 2 pepper plants plowed almost down to the bottom, only a few low leaves left. Well, we immediately went to Big Orange (we don’t advertise here on carrievision.com.. because, yeah I don’t have enough readers to attract advertisers. Ignore that Ikea post below..) and got the heavy-duty deer fence.
So now, our garden box is surrounded in heavy-duty deer fence. We also got some special “deer off spray” recommended by the garden club. Luckily we hadn’t sprayed any yet because it was a serious downpour today.
Deer off spray + fence might seem like a bit much, but oh, the deer aren’t just attracted to what we might think of as edible. Oak reported yesterday that one the hostas that was already growing in the back (one of our few existing plants) had been eaten.
Looking at these “old” garden pictures, I do need to post an update. Depsite the deer invasion, our garden has gotten considerably bigger and more colorful! The hydrangeas even have flowers now!
So yeah. Bring on the deer spray. Oak would prefer a more permanent fix but I’m pretty sure hunting is a prohibited activity in our subdivision…. 
This post has a soundtrack, if you’d like something to listen to:
We were at Ikea over the weekend, browsing, sitting on the Ektorp couch, playing with kitchen cabinets, eating 50 cent hot dogs… etc. etc. Does this place EVER get old? Not really. Sure, I’ve realized that some of their stuff is of questionable quality over the years (don’t expect your Lack table to survive more than a couple moves without some of the veneer chipping off.. lol), but it is still one of my favorite stores. Now that it’s fairly close by (well, convenient to family!) it’s lost some of its excitement factor for me, but that just means we can get MORE stuff there. Ding!
The Poang is one of those iconic pieces of Ikea furniture. Whoever doesn’t own one, at least knows someone that does. We have one with a green microfiber cover that has lasted us about 6 years so far. It’s awesome. Ready to brush right past that section following the ever-so-convenient arrows to the Billy Bookcases, having already owned said Poang, I managed to spot this beauty out of the corner of my eye:
A Poang cushion with OAK LEAVES AND ACORNS! Are they freaking kidding me??! Have the Ikea marketing people bored a hole into my brain and extracted my idea for an Oak-themed motifa? Seriously. However, at the current juncture, we cannot justify $100 for new cushions when we a) already have Poang cushions and b) could spend $100 on many other home improvement projects.. like window coverings for example, so Oak can walk around without pants on (which, it seems, is every man’s house goal..). Actually, it’s a miracle if we get out of a home improvement store visit spending UNDER that amount, and I’m like dude all we bought was random hardware items.. What the heck, seriously?? 
We decided instead that we would look in the fabric section – in hopes that they would have this fabric in stock so I could make something else out out of it. No such luck, but we did find an organic patterned fabric in some more muted colors that I bought a yard of for our half bathroom on the first floor. Now I have an inspiration piece! But, this cushion will haunt my dreams until I find some way to buy it for ten dollars. Any ideas?
