Home home on the range....The Blue Bird

 
We have been so pleased with our home here in Tulsa. As I have mentioned before, our landlords Jim and Annie live in the house next door and also own the house on the other side of ours. They acquired the homes from aging neighbors and have loved the properties back to life. They find their tenants by word of mouth and only rent to short term tenants. Each space is decorated in a particular theme, fully furnished, and have been restored to their craftsmen era glory.

Our side is called The Bluebird. We live on the left, the drive way side. The other side of the house is pretty close to a mirror image but it is decorated in a mid century modern theme.

 We have one bedroom...

 We got this cute themed comforter when we got here to commemorate out journey.  CJ insisted on getting a bed skirt the first day we got here(so he could hide his armory under the bed, don't worry friends he has not been domesticated) and I couldn't pass up this perfect print!

 One Bathroom...

The bathroom also sports a bathtub!!! and a cute blue bird shower curtain.

 A kitchen....

 I took the pictures from a whole bunch of angles to make it look bigger, did it work? CJ and I literally cannot be working on separate projects in there, its like zone defense, one mans the fridge and stove the other the sink and washing machine.

Please notice our extra counter space, aka the washing machine. I am thankful for in home laundry, but someday my dream home will not include a "cute little" kitchen....the kitchen will be  BIG! =)

 A dining room/office that also doubled nicely as a spare bedroom when my mom came to see us...

Look at all that open space...I condensed all the furniture to one side of the room so I could just bask in the opulence of open unused space, perhaps a good location for dust bunny angels?

 

This room also has a huge closet off of it perfect for storing all of our extra things we packed to furnish our next apartment in Florida.

 A living room...

Check out the couch, the one we left in Michigan was this funny shape as well, a little slice of home.

 

 A from porch....

We love it out here! We have our dinner outside most nights and just enjoy the breeze and curious lack of mosquitoes! I also love to lay in my hammock and read.

 and a back porch....

The back porch is so cute, it has just enough room for our dryer and the drying rack. This is our main entry since we get to park in the garage.

Here is the garage, it is too small for Rosie only her front fits in, but the Beetle fits perfectly beside our neighbors mini cooper. CJ is off hiking this week and he left me with the behemoth to drive around town, I can only imagine the amount of laughing our neighbors do while I pull out of the garage hop out to fold the mirrors back out and try to back that thing down the driveway.

 

 
  We have a cute little back yard...

and a side yard with a pretty tree and a  little tent that we brought to store our bikes in.

 

 Annie does a great job of keeping the yards looking beautiful with flower beds and an herb and  vegetable garden.
  
We feel settled in and comfortable, missing you all at home. Hope you enjoyed the tour!

Love,

Adrian and CJ

The Tall Grass Prairie Preserve

 

One of my favorite things we have done in Oklahoma so far was to visit the Tall Grass Prairie Preserve just north of Pawhuska, about 90 minutes from our house in Tulsa. We visited there when my mom came to visit and she loved it too.

 

 

 

The Tall Grass Prairie Preserve near Pawhuska, Oklahoma is the largest protected area of tall grass prairie on Earth, spanning 39,000 acres. The tall grass prairie is a complex environment harboring a rich diversity of plants and animals. The current 39,000-acre expanse was purchased from private ownership in 1989 and is now managed by the Nature Conservancy to be enjoyed as a scenic drive.

This scenic route on public county roads takes visitors through the heart of the Tall Grass Prairie Preserve and through adjacent private ranches. Starting and ending in Pawhuska, the complete drive is approximately 50 miles, and takes about two hours at a leisurely pace with time for stopping.

 

Our drive was very scenic and it made me feel like we have finally found The Great Plains. Rolling hills of prairie grass as far as you could see. The Tall Grass Prairie Preserve is also home to a reintroduced herd of 2500 buffalo....including buffalo babies!  I think the pictures will speak for themselves, it was so beautiful an terrifying at the same time to drive through a herd of buffalo crossing the road.  This time of year there are also a variety of different wildflowers blooming in abundance across the landscape.

 

 

 

When we first arrived a storm was rolling in and it started to pour down rain as we drove along the  gently winding gravel county road. Trough the haze of rain we saw a whole group  of dark blobs very close to the road, the buffalo! We rolled down our windows to get some good shots of them:

 

 

 

 

 

After tentatively following another car through the buffalo herd we kept driving following the signs to the park headquarters.  After a few minutes we were blessed to see another part of the herd grazing on either side of the road.

 

 

 

The storm started to let up as we approached the park headquarters, an old bunk house from when the property was privately owned and an area staffed by volunteers that will tell you the story of the preserve and share with you collected samples of buffalo hair, skulls of various small animals, deer antlers, birds and prairie grasses that reach heights even over CJ's head.

 

 

 

As we continued to drive the signs changed from loose buffalo to loose cattle and we saw a small herd scattered and grazing through out a field. Who would think that a cow would be beautiful to look at? I guess it's all about location. 

 

 

We turned around and headed back the way we came. the sun was shining so we took the opportunity to take some photos of the wildflowers and to go around the buffalo loop in hopes of spotting the rest of the herd.  what we found was a pen full of Texas longhorns as that part of the preserve is next to some privately owned ranches. No buffalo in sight on the whole buffalo loop but we did see some more whitetail deer.

 

 

Finally as we worked our way back to the entrance we came upon the buffalo again and this time took some photos not obscured by falling raindrops.

 

 

All in all it was a wonderful day of enjoying God's beautiful creation in a place we had never been before. My mom was visiting at that time so it was also a nice time of togetherness to just enjoy together.  We were there for way more than the 2 hours that the description says it should take but the time just flew by with so much to look at. I had to drive on the way home because both of my passengers were sleepy and engrossed in beating each other at 4 pictures 1 word on their phones.