It snowed today — a real blizzard. We sure need it. I’ll wait to see if it storm blows over before I go outside and work on the new fence beside the “Boat” mountain — so named because it looks like a capsized boat. A couple Fridays ago, we were able to bring in the temporary trough and drain its water line. I brought the battery and the electric fence charger in, but we haven’t insulated the house-well pipe yet. Maybe Friday.

The calves and wheat are sold and the grass seed is harvested, but not yet sold. It makes me nervous because the operating loan is due in December and the seed is all we have to pay toward it. So many people think that ranch life is romantic. I know that it is “pleasant as well as challenging,” but right now I could do with a little less “challenging” and a little more “pleasant.”

Big Darrell said he saw our lost cow in Bennion Canyon, but I recently accounted for all our cows except for the black brockle cow we lost in late August. The one he saw was solid black. Maybe it’s the cow I lost five years ago. One can always hope.

The Walkers are saving us a female border collie pup. I can’t wait until she’s weaned. It will be fun to see if we can make a herder out of her. Our present dog, Hermie, would still rather chase a four-wheeler than a cow or even a rabbit. Machines will be the end of him.

The snow has stopped and is beginning to melt; I guess I can get outside now. When everything is wet, the sagebrush stems turn black. The desert just smells better after a shower. When you want to find the “pleasant” in ranching, just look outside.

A new skiff of snow on the Sheeprock Mountains and all is set right. It reminds me that I need to get Christmas packages ready for my world travelers: a son in northern Italy and my oldest daughter in the Czech Republic — green places where rain is not so vital. I’ll include a bouquet of sagebrush, rabbit brush, juniper, and pinyon — the smells of home. Out I go.

Elizabeth B. Mitchell, along with her husband Alan, operates the Bennion Ranch at Benmore. She was hatched under a sagebrush and feels very much at home anywhere there is no pavement.