Graduation Day

Today, I was able to get out of bed and outside before 6:30 because I opted to sleep for the full eight hours!

When I was doing chores this morning Merle came down with Stephanie, his niece. It surprized me- little did I know she had stayed last night! It was really great to finally meet her and have someone to kinda hang out with for a little while:) After chores, Merle invited me to come along to Andrea's graduation; my only plans for the day were to go to chuch and do yardwork- graduation sounded much more exciting.

So we left the place about a quarter after eight and headed to Kyle for Oglala Lakota College graduation. There was a pretty nice sized crowd there, and it was outdoor, which was different, and kinda neat. The whole ceremony was a lot different than what you would expect of a state school or a public high school. A few bits and pieces were in Lakota and there was some ceremonial dancing for the processional and recessional. The graduates wore a feather rather than a cap with a tasle as well. The whole thing was pretty neat to see, and really interesting, and best of all Andrea got her degree in nursing- congrats to her:)

After the ceremony, we went to her place and grilled out for the afternoon. It was a really nice to meet some more of the family and just visit with people. I was able to meet Merle's brother Harvey and his wife Carol (from Hermosa? ...I think), his sister Nancy and her husband John and daughter Stephanie (they came all the way from AZ), and a few others. I really enjoyed the day and it was a nice way for me to be social on a day like Father's day.

After a few hours, Merle, Stephie, and I took off for the ranch. On the way back we stopped by the pasture over at Craig's place to try to get a bull in...with the suburban. We got his all the way to the other end of the pasture- almost to the gate he needed to go through and, of course, he jumped the fence. So, we headed back home, did chores, saddled up and headed back. We found him along the road and the three of us managed to push him back to where he belonged. But, meanwhile Dan decided to spook...twice. I had both legs on one side of the saddle both times...but somehow- I have no idea how exactly, I managed to stay on. We were just battling it out today, but I hope I won in the end! Needless to say my back is feeling it a bit- but I'll live.

We dropped Stephanie back off at Ross and Marva's in town and Merle and I headed back home and unsaddled the horses. It was a really great day, and I had a lot of fun meeting and spending time with some great people! Sounds like tomrrow morning we are going to move the dry cows in so we can ship them out on Wednesday.