Arlo and Janis by Jimmy Johnson for September 06, 2024

It seems that everyone has deer at home.

Cue the deer. JJ used it before but with dolphins if I remember correctly.

But these are new deer!

Yeah, it would sell me.

Hunting Season?

Hire a contractor?

First she wanted to move, now she doesn’t? To be fair, it is a lot to start from scratch, but I would say she is the one that started this whole ball rolling in the first place. She needs to make up her mind one way or the other.

Gus said, good job! Now the panda!

And the deer is thinking “Dang, there goes the neighborhood”

It might make you feel younger, guys!

deer and goats, have them on your property and you’ll never have to mow or trim again.

What’s that sound I hear?? Oh, yeah, right….Janis is popping another one of Arlo’s bubbles….no wonder it sounded so familiar.

My parents moved into a new house located next to a forest preserve. Deer would walk right down the street. They loved it until they started to eat all outdoor plants etc. Plus they carry ticks. Not so great after all.

No neighbors, no HOA no utilities, no thanks!

I’m liking this arc; it’s like real life in that it takes time and much consideration to move. To Janis this is like starting all over again, when she only wants something convenient to move into. For Arlo, it is appealing to move into something completely new and forge ahead. They just have different styles. Even for folks who’ve been together a long time, it is a big decision to move to another state.

Arlo, as soon as land clearing and construction began, the deer would begin moving out.

Janis won’t like the deer when she plants her garden.

Hey! She called it “Home”!

That is what I tell all the Solar Panel sales people. 20 or 30 years ago I might have done it.

The’ll eat your plants.

We looked to move near our kid sand grandchild for 7 years, finally bought a lot and built one. Because nothing on the market me our needs. Looks strangely familiar.

That’s right, build your house where the deer live then complain they come and eat your flowers.

We live in the second largest city in Oregon and we’ve had deer in our yard. There’s also a gang of turkeys that have visited, no Canada geese though fortunately.

I am with Janis on this one. We built (literally, as in did the work) a house ourselves in our 40s and it took almost 2 yrs and was not worth it.

Well Janis, you can give up on gardening, because everything you plant will be destroyed by the deer.

Not ones that I can shoot from my back porch!

More options means more anxiety

So much for doing gardening. Deer will eat just about anything when hungry enough.

I have a small family of deer living on my property. Very cute except for their appetite for roses and lilacs.

My Deer Friend…

Janis said “we have deer at home”. So sees this as her future home.

We have deer at home. Love it!!!

Maybe settle for a half acre.

Two rules for retirement: Don’t buy a big mortgage, don’t buy a pet that will tie you down.

The deer is trying desperately to convey something!

“Don’t do it! This is my bedroom! That’s my half-bath! I’m saving up for th’ big screen!”

Oh deer!

The high water table in a rural area near the coast means putting in a well might be easy, but putting in a septic tank might be a nightmare.

My folks moved to the Hill Country of Texas, west of Austin many years ago. They had about 10 ac of land and lots of deer in the area. They were cute, they were magical, they were hungry. They wiped out her garden. She put up a 5ft fence, Pfft! the deer jumped it. By the time she was done she had an 8ft fence with a wire roof, because raccoons can climb fences. We took to calling it ‘Stalag 13.’ The next year she didn’t grow a garden. I think it was watching a Tarantula migration cross their property that did her in. Nature wins in the end. . .

I have a friend who is 74. He and his wife are building a house out in the country.

Think hard before saying, “If we were twenty years younger.” You don’t know how old you will get to be, and remember, up until recently Jimmy Carter was still building homes.

She doesn’t want to go…

Janis, neither of you have enough grey hair, or lack of hair, to excuse going forward in life.

I did it again, I forgot they’re fictional.

Arlo is an easy sell…..Janis is a realist!

Not an adventure without wild animals.

Before Hurricane Ivan blew down most of my trees, I would come home and see four or five deer under my Chestnut trees eating the chestnuts. They would look up when I came up the drive, realize it was just me, and go back to eating. It was quite pleasant.

They are still around, but my front yard isn’t cleared up and load as well as it was back before I had to deal with all those trees down. Go ahead

Mmmmm! Bambi Burgers!

That settles that for them. They’re all in. It’s a sign for one (maybe both) of them.

That deer would end up eating all non-deer resistant plants of Janice down to the ground. I have seen this occur at my family’s home when I was (much) younger and lived there.

Yup. Don’t move. To hell with the “kids” subplot, and stick a pin in this story. Go on to something else.

Starting a project like this at their age would be sheer madness.

What’s age got to do with it? They’re not planning on raising a kid, just finding some stimulation in a new environment. Being in a rut is the enemy of wise aging.

Deer are a pain. They eat all the landscaping, and then run out in the road and get hit.

Janis might be convinced…

Ocean idea, maybe. This BAD…..

One thing with Gus. He’s a horse trader. Always wave your hand in front of the horse to make sure it isn’t blind.

Don’t have to live all the way out in the sticks to see wildlife. I live about a half mile from the outskirts of town. Back when I worked the night shift, I’d occasionally see a deer or two on the road in late summer early fall. They’d sometimes come into the back yard to get at the neighbor’s small apple tree.

Where’s the popcorn?

Buy a monster RV and try it for a year.

They have deer and coyotes and fox and squirrels and raccoons and all kinds of birds. Just like our neighborhood. Tell him.

Be careful, she represents the HOA.

funny… a realtor told me of a time when he was showing a house to a prospective buyer, who was hemming and hawing, when a small herd of elk walked through the yard… instant sale!

Building a custom house is a tremendous amount of work, even if you have a good contractor. You have to decide everything: Layout, ranch, colonial, split level, how many bedrooms, how many stalls in the garage, basement or no? Then the 10,000 and one details inside: Paint or wallpaper, chair rails, carpeting, tile, on and on and on. I hope their marriage is strong because building even a small custom home will test that marriage to its limits.

Janis is such a killjoy.