Year of the Hog

I read recently that this is the year of the hog in the Chinese system. Each year is apparently associated with a beast in a rotating 12 year cycle. The beasts are:

• Rooster
• Dog
• Boar/Pig/Hog
• Rat
• Ox
• Tiger
• Hare/Rabbit
• Dragon
• Serpent/Snake
• Horse
• Ram
• Monkey

Of course it begs the question: which came first, the Chicken or the Egg — er — the Chicken or the Dog (or Boar or Rat or ...)?

Speaking of chickens and eggs, did you know that some genius in England (I think) has claimed to have decisively answered the question of which came first? His answer is the egg and his reasoning goes like this: What comes out of the egg is what was in the egg, genetically speaking. But what goes into the egg isn't necessarily what was in the mother.

In other words, he opines that the chicken is a chicken because it came from a chicken egg — it couldn't come from any other kind of egg. But sometimes things go wrong when eggs are created or fertilized and the result is a new set of DNA. Some new sets of DNA are not successful and the egg never hatches, but other new sets of DNA work out okay and you end up with a new critter inside the shell. Maybe that explains the Easter Bunny!



Sounds okay, but my retort is "what about cancer?" And no, I'm not shifting my calendar focus to the zodiac on my way back to the Chinese calendar (though I'll get back there). What I'm asking about is the disease called cancer. If I understand what I've read (though you must consider the source), cancer cells are mutations of normal cells. The DNA has been changed during replication. What if this happened after the egg was laid/fertilized/whatever? My point is that what started out as one thing turns into another, and why can't it happen in the egg and result in a chicken? It didn't start out as a chicken egg, but a chicken came out of it! So can you really call it a chicken egg? If that's how it happened then the chicken came before the chicken egg.

But what do I know? I'm just a Rabbit.

So back to the Chinese calendar. This is the year of the Pig or Hog or Boar. Different calendars call it different things, but those things are rather different from one another, don't you think? And some calendars have a Rabbit while others have Hares, and we're rather different from each other, too. But I don't want to split hairs! ;-) ;-)

According to the placemat (the Chinese calendar has been handed down through the centuries on restaurant placemats) anyone born this year will be "Shy but short tempered. Affectionate and kind to loved ones. Impulsive and honest. Most compatible with Sheep and Rabbits. Steer clear of other Pigs."

I was born in 2005, which was the year of the Chicken (uh-oh, hare we go again!). According to the placemat, those born under the sign of the Chicken should avoid Rabbits. Of course, I'm a rabbit. So I have to avoid — myself.



That picture has absolutely nothing to do with me, but I found it while I was looking for rabbit pictures and I thought it was cute.

Hoppy Christmas

Things have been a bit slow for the past few months. Can't get into the backyard anymore, but I'm still around. Unfortunately, the bushes just don't provide the same sense of security as the fence once did. No matter that the old fence didn't really provide security — it was the impression that mattered.

Gee, does that remind you of something? Bushes. Fences. Security.

Anyway, the drought has really done a number on us rabbits. The watering restrictions have reduced our local food supply and caused a migration to — well, to greener pastures. It's kind of funny, in a perverted sort of way, to see how house size correlates with water usage. A few blocks away the houses are much larger and the lawns are much greener. You wouldn't think there were watering restrictions over there, but I'm told that the whole city is under restrictions.

So guess where all the rabbits are?

I can tell you that the lure of free internet access is not so strong when you're hungry.

But back to my humorous correlation: the people who are most caught up in keeping up appearances, including green lawns and lush flower beds, are doing exactly the thing that most attracts the animals that will destroy their vegetation! In other words, by ignoring the water crisis and finding every legal (and sometimes illegal) way to water their yards, they are standing out as an oasis for all the starving critters in the area!

There's no sign of the drought ending, so I can't say when I'll be able to move back to this yard. And as it takes quite some time to hop over here I would advise you not to hold your breath until my next post. I've tried to encourage one of my kids, Floppy XVII, to submit a post or two, but he just doesn't seem into it.

So if you don't hear from me again until next year, I hope you have a Hoppy Christmas!

Final (?) Backyard Update

Just when you can't think of anything else that needs doing, someone shows up and does something really, really, odd.

As you know, the work in the backyard has been the bane / focus of my existence (aside from finding green grass during a drought) for the past few weeks.

I thought everything was done last week, but yesterday the boss-man of the backyard construction crew showed up with what I can only call a wheel-barrel. It was a barrel on its side with a handle attached so that you could roll it around. He filled it with water (is that legal under current water usage rules?) and then pushed it all around the new grass.

Okay.

I have no clue what this thing is for. Was it a lint roller? An iron (like for removing wrinkles from clothes)? An exercise program? I'm perplexed.

Once again I think this will be my last post about the backyard. But who knows, maybe someone will show up tomorrow with iron-on transfers and put them all around the lawn. Or maybe a UFO will hand and make crop circles in the grass.

I'll keep an eye on things for you.

Backyard Update 5

It's been a tough week. There is only one way in and out of the backyard now, and that's under the front gate. It's a tight squeeze for me, so I think it will hold back the cats and dogs, unless the cats decide to climb over. But since there isn't a giant litter box under the tree anymore I think the lazy cats won't bother.

Since Monday there have been people in the backyard nearly every daylight hour, so I haven't been back there much. Instead I've been working from the bushes on the north side of the front door. The Wi-Fi signal is very strong there.

Anyway, the wall and fence seem to be done. They even came and sprayed the fence with a liquid that makes it much darker. A bunch of bricks were piled near the base of the wall and then covered with dirt. Then a different color of dirt was put over the first dirt, and then grass was put in. At least I think it's grass. It's not very green or healthy looking. But I guess it will keep the dirt from blowing away.

The humans watered the dickens out of the dead grass last night. Thursday is their day to water and they made the most of it.

In summary, what used to be one of the best yards to raise a family in is no longer. The grass is all dead and is periodically flooded. Maybe things will be better next year.

Backyard Update 4

About 5:30 Friday night a bunch of guys showed up and did some work on the fence and on some pipes under the ground. It only took them about an hour and they were gone.

The boss man came by yesterday morning, just before lunch and left a trailer full of pieces of brick. He talked to the Gray One and they walked all along the fence. I heard the Gray One ask about putting some trim at the bottom of the front gate, but the boss man said he couldn't because it would hit the turf (I think that's grass) when you opened it. That's a relief because the gap under that gate is the only way in or out of the backyard unless you're tall enough to operate the latch.

I have to admit that I'm a bit worried about those brick pieces. I've seen those kids play and if something can be picked up and thrown, it will be. So far they've shown remarkable restraint about throwing things at me, but maybe that's because I'm so hard to see when I keep really, really still. And my zig-zag running makes me a hard target to hit.

Backyard Update 3

Apparently the Hispanics working in the backyard are also good Catholics because Sunday was a day of rest. If they worked, they weren't working here. Then again, they didn't show up Monday, either, and Tuesday only saw two of them show up late and work for only about an hour attaching one row of 2x6 along the top of the wall.

This morning started out looking like another slow day, but just after 11 the same two from late Tuesday showed up and got down to some serious work. Then, around 4 p.m. the boss-man showed up and there was an argument about the 2x6 that had been installed the day before. It seems to be called a "kick board" and the argument was about whether it should have been there. Conclusion: the 2x6 on the work order was a "top cap" (which is not the same as a "top hat"), not a kick board. I wasn't close enough to hear if the boss-man suggested that the workers should learn to read English.

The fence is almost done. The kick board stays because it would be too much labor to remove it after 150 feet of pickets have been installed. I'm guessing it will all be done tomorrow, though I don't know if that will include the staining (the Gray One and his mate chose "light", not "dark").

As I was watching the work I was getting really worried because there's no gap between the wall and the fence. That's good for keeping dogs out, but looked pretty effective at keeping me out, too! Then I saw a spot over by the garage where the wall drops down flush with the grass. That's where the gate used to be and it looks like they're constructing another there. There's about a 4 inch space under the gate that I can easily get through. Unfortunately, it might also let small dogs through. Luckily, there's still the crack between the chimney and the storage box — I can seek refuge there if a dog squeezes under the gate.

Backyard Update 2

The wall got finished on Saturday, but the Gray One is out today doing cleanup stuff. Well, he's moving stuff around. There's concrete dust and sand everywhere, plus rock chips and blobs of concrete. My grass is inedible because of all the dust.

I found out that the head Mexican is actually Brazilian. I overheard him telling the female human that the fence guys would start Tuesday and be done on Wednesday, with the whole "thing" done by the end of the week.

I just hope they wash the grass when they're done.