Our Homeplace: At the Mobley Ranch (Post # 51)

August 11-25, 2018

It is such a pleasure to be back with Tim, Maryann, Ethan, Kate, and Natalie! We were here at Easter time this year while the kids were on spring break and enjoyed them so much! Family time is so important, and we feel so blessed to be able to spend time with them, especially since they are about 2,250 miles away from us. God has indeed blessed us with children (all of them) that love spending time with us!

This is the first time being at Tim’s that we've experienced their monsoons. Although we’ve been to Tucson many times and have seen it rain occasionally, we’ve never seen these storms that contain so much wind and rain. The storm came up suddenly, swept through the valley, and then left this beautiful rainbow to welcome us home.

Yes, that is what this feels like, home.

I’ve mentioned before about the saying on our bedroom wall in the RV that says, “Wherever we are together, that is home.” So, when we are with family, whether it is here at Lost Wells Trail, or at our house in Bear Grass with our family gathered there, or on the road somewhere just the two of us, it feels like home.

Tim, Boomer and I watching the monsoon coming our way.

A beautiful sunset after the storm had passed.

Some days my morning walk consisted of walking the half mile and back to Tim's mailbox twice, for a total of two miles. One morning, Tim suggested I make the turn to go through the tunnel that's to the right and down a ways past his drive. It was all uphill, but I'd rather go uphill first and get the hardest part over with. It was rather dark in there! But the view coming out on the other side was so beautiful. If you've never visited the desert, you may wonder what's so beautiful about it. But it certainly is, in it's own unique way. Right now everything is so much greener than some other times we've visited due to the rain from the monsoons.

Our usual morning routine--we walk over to see the girls off to school. Ethan leaves early (5:00) to get to school to run cross-country before school begins, so we don’t get to see him in the mornings.

We get to see Ethan when he comes home in the afternoon after a long day for him. He is a freshmen in high school. He is so tall now that he has to bend over to give me a hug.

Everyone pitches in at dinner time. Ethan and Tim are both good cooks.

After dinner we usually go out and sit by the pool with our feet in the water or either get into the hot tub and wait for the sun to set. There are such beautiful sunsets here.

Tim's first project for him and Paul was helping with the bees. Tim had told us he had bought another bee suit, and we thought it was for Tim. But he handed it to Paul as soon as they got down to the barn. Paul is the one in the middle. The "bee man" to the right is Tim's friend, Rich. He has had this type of bee hive before and is helping out.

I'm keeping my distance. I intended to take pictures from the barn.

But I'm too curious! I couldn't miss out on all the fun! So I had to get closer.

Tim is keeping the smoker going. It helps keep the bees calm. There wasn't enough honey to harvest any since they only started the hives around Easter when we were here last, but the bees were working hard at it. Maybe they'll harvest some desert honey soon.

Our two houses—the RV and “our house” (as Tim and Maryann call their casita) together in the same picture. And the mountain behind us.

This next group of pictures was taken outside the casita. These quail, and the doves too, love to pick up the seeds dropped by other birds from the feeders in the palo verde tree.

The sun is rising just to the right of the casita and shining on the mountains over to our left. Just look at how the sun lights up the desert!

And the sun is up!

Tim and Paul's second project together--put up shelves inside the barn to put all his excess lumber on. They are just beginning the process in the pictures below. (I forgot to get a picture of the completed project.)

Next was helping clean up the building materials around the barn.

Yikes! Fortunately, this was a king snake. These snakes kill the rattlesnakes, so they left it alone. We also saw lots of other desert animals too--coyotes, taranchula spiders, scorpions, etc.

Not everything involved work, though. Paul and Ethan found themselves a girlfriend! Not really. Lol! They were just kidding around at the Boot Store where we went shopping for new duds for Ethan’s volunteer work at a therapy horse ranch.

This picture was also at the Boot Store. I thought it was appropriate for our time on the road. Maybe Paul will get around to making me one like it one of these days. (If we stay home long enough.)

Tim and Maryann went to Ohio for a wedding and left us in charge for about three days. Oh boy! We had lots of fun on his quad, especially doing donuts in the arena area! We like working outside and we took this opportunity to help around the ranch, moving some building materials and digging up desert weeds/shrubs from around the fenced in area of the yard. That pile beside Paul is about eleven cart loads.