We start with a question about deer. One islander says, “We have the most interesting deer on this island. We plant what is resistant but it seems like they have caviar taste and eat whatever is in front of them.”
We suggest fences and sprays, but nothing keeps them away.
They wait in the shadows for the Deer-Off spray to wash away with the rain and then set in.
Deer are basically like me in that they’ll eat whatever is in front of them, whether they like it or not, and whether it’s effectively poison or not.
We have sympathy from our brethren across the state. One commenter says, “Same thing here in eastern wa, I heard monofilament fishing line gives them the creeps because they can’t see it when they bump it but not sure if it’s TRUE, anyone else no the skinny on that.”
I like the idea of taunting deer with things that seem supernaturally evil to them. Imagine if you went to go get a cookie from the cabinet and some invisible, annoying forcefield tripped you. Though I imagine the deer will quickly learn to Mission Impossible their way around by maneuvering their many-jointed legs through the strands of fishing wire.
We have problems with more than just deer. What do we do with the broken reflectors that litter the road? An islander asks, “Hi neighbors! Does anyone know if the county will eventually retrieve all the broken road reflectors from the winter storms? If not, I’ll start collecting on my walks.”
I like that islanders are collecting reflectors like sea glass. One islander reports having collected buckets of them over the years. Another makes bespoke lawn ornamentation out of them. In their own words, “ Pick um up , put em in a net bag ,hang um on a post outside by a road or drive way,looks pretty cool , lots of sparkle.” Please tell me you will sell these at the farmers’ market.
Others just kick them off the curb when jogging.
And speaking of reflective things, we have this mystery object that the previous owners left in the shed.
It turns out it’s a bow light from a ship. That’s why it has a red half and a green half, so it can be used as the port or starboard light.
We then all share pictures of our bow lights.
And speaking of boats, starting in October, kids will ride the ferry free. As one islander says, “Oh good, we can stop hiding them in the trunk.”
You could send your kids on the boat to go back and forth for a few runs to get some peace and quiet. This is a backup plan if you can’t find childcare.
We argue about masks again. Can you believe we’ve been arguing about masks for 2 years now? An islander posts that they don’t like how few people are wearing masks in the grocery store. A commenter insists that the desire for masks is based on fear, and that fear isn’t realistic. I never understood this line of reasoning. Fear is super realistic. Did you know that you can die? And then you’ll never exist again for the rest of infinite time? And that might suck? So doing some small thing that will prevent you from ceasing to exist in the mortal realm for all eternity seems kinda reasonable. But maybe death is preferable to looking vulnerable.
And it wouldn’t be a week on Vashon without loose farm animals. These loose goats scrambled down a hill and found themselves in someone’s yard. One has no ears. They’re probably conspiring with the deer to eat everything in your garden.
Finally, we have a new real estate listing! The good news is, no matter how high the trees grow, you’ll be able to see the mountain.
I can’t wait for the loose goats to climb on the roof of this new development.
Author: Anna Shomsky
I'm a former teacher and a data engineer living on Vashon Island. My writing has appeared in Five on the Fifth, Women on Writing and on the Post-Culture Podcast. I wrote and produced the radio show Whispers of Vashon for 101.9 KVSH. I’ve had short stories published in the anthologies Island Stories and Chicken Scratchings, as well as through the Open Space Literary Project.
