East of Upton the prairie starts to fold into the first low ridges of the Black Hills, pine showing dark against the grass even under snow, and it's that transitional ground, half open range and half foothill, that Wyoming Earthmoving Corporation works through the winter months. A ranch spread out here can mean a lane running a mile or more from the house to the county road, and the same heavy equipment this crew uses for summer earthwork gets fitted with a blade to push through whatever a Black Hills storm leaves behind. The wind across the open stretches builds drift fast, but the ground gets more sheltered as it climbs toward the pines, so a single property can need two very different kinds of clearing within the same lane. A stock tank at the far end of a pasture road matters as much to a rancher as the driveway itself, and this crew keeps both open when the weather allows. It's wide, working ground on the edge of the Black Hills, and Wyoming Earthmoving Corporation moves a good deal of snow off it every winter.