Easter and other holidays always mean family time at the Reddell house.
This year was a little bit of an exception since Mike had some medical issues popping up.
Luckily, he’s on the mend again and we’re glad to have him home.
My siblings showed up early in the week and spent more than a week at home.
All three of us haven’t been together under the same roof for such a chunk of time that things felt a little surreal.
Shower schedules and rotation were worked out on a sliding scale between my sister and me.
Since I was used to having the whole hot water heater to myself, I had to cut my shower time shorter in order to share.
It was like being back in my early college years where the first one up got the best hot water and everyone else afterward had to manage with it being lukewarm.
Luckily, my brother preferred to shower at night, so, he didn’t have to join in on the water sharing.
It wasn’t all bickering and poking at each other either!
I had plenty of events to cover for the paper last week and they helped mom finish up some large projects around the house.
My sister put all of her landscaping skills to work by helping mom transition rose bushes and other plants from plastic pots to their new homes.
And after my brother finished his remote work for the day, he was on hand to make repairs to the chicken coop and beef up the safety, too.
Mike is concerned about wild animals making a meal out of his favorite rooster – Tres.
Mom was only minorly concerned about Tres and was more panicky about her new batch of baby chicks.
There are just over two dozen of the little chirping feathered fluff balls and they’re growing pretty quickly.
After the last tragic losses of our old birds, mom made a little extra effort to keep these gals safe.
Currently, they’re inside a large dog kennel and pampered with vegetable scraps along with their regular food.
Though she’s had to get more creative with pieces of cardboard to keep Loki from snatching a chicken nugget.
That doesn’t stop my cat from trying and imitating a claw machine while laying on top of the cage and dangling his feet down through the bars in an attempt to grab a chick.
I don’t know what he’d do if he actually caught one, but, he does get fussed at and removed from his perch.
But, like all cats, he always ends up back where we don’t want him and watches the baby chicks as if it’s his own personal nature documentary with the possibility of a stolen snack.
I do have to say that I’ll be glad when the chicks are big enough to go outside to their coop.
Half the time they get silent and seem to be taking a nap only for one chick to peck the other in the butt and someone ends up screaming.
Half the time, poor Loki gets blamed for it, too!
Even then it also reminds me of how annoying siblings can get.
With almost two weeks together, including errands out of town, while squished into the back seat of mom’s Jeep, I can safely say that I’m enjoying when they leave and loving them from afar.
