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Freein, ...from my experience , y'all are doing the right thing to hold off on a dog until you're able to be around the house more. It'll be a wonderful bonus whenever that happens though !!
Up, ...it's so true about the deer leaping high fences, ...and another surprising thing I've witnessed is how the small ones can slip under a 12" section so easily at the bottom of the fence. My fence ( actually the neighboring property owner's fence ) ,....is a nice 7' solid wooden privacy fence. It'll be more cost effective to close the points of access,.... rather than build a separate fence around the garden area.
I've looked into designing a motorized gate, ...but the ones I've studied are surprisingly complex. I was thinking something along the lines of a garage door opener motor.
If I have to go with a manual wide gate initially for the truck, that'll be fine , since I plan on building a 44" wide gate also. It'll work fine coming and going on the scooter without dismounting . I come and go now without dismounting from inside the shop with a 42" door.
My only thought is the unwelcoming visual of a closed gate,.....maybe a nice welcome sign would offset that ! Possibly another sign with a red circle and diagonal line through it with a deer silhouette would be good too ( as a sort of explanation )
Possibly run a few lines with a bit of low voltage juice ,..... along with a motion activated exterior spotlight may be something effective around the small garden area. Have a gut feeling these deer may be pretty tenacious, once they get a whiff of something yummy.