North of Laporte the land goes wide and the wind gets a running start, so a storm out here doesn't merely fall — it travels, packing drifts against every windbreak, gatepost and cattle guard between the valley and Livermore. Steven Barnes Dba Front Range Excavation takes snow at that scale, plowing long drives and ranch lanes, opening yards, lots and turnarounds, and shoving the drifts far enough back that they stay beaten. Some mornings the machine is the only moving thing for a mile in any direction. Then the sky clears the way it does after a north wind and the whole Front Range stands up white along the western horizon, and every gate on the place is reachable again. Getting a property back to usable, all the way to the county road, is the measure of the day.