There's also the trip into town for groceries, for a doctor's appointment, for work, school and church functions.

Think things are tough in suburbia?

"On the news they're always talking about using mass transit, but in Utah that's only good for the Wasatch Front," said Addie Snow, a ranch wife in rural Uintah County who doubles as a seamstress making custom home drapes (another reason to drive). "We have to drive 15 or 20 miles to get to anything but the post office."

Thank goodness there's a post office just down the road in Jensen. For everything else, from Mormon stake meetings to spare parts for the tractors, the Snows are bound for Vernal. And then there are those tractors, four of them burning diesel to tend the hay and corn that will feed the cattle this winter.

Total damage: $400. Every day.

Rural Utahns always face the highest energy costs, but now it's getting acute, Utah County agricultural extension agent Dean Miner said.

"It just stands to reason that the farther you are away from services, the more miles you'll put on your vehicle and the costs would be relatively greater for a rural family," Miner said. "So often with rural families, they need to run and get a part for the farm equipment. There's not any alternative."

It's gotten so expensive that many farmers have turned to homegrown biodiesel, he said.

A survey by the Maryland-based Oil Price Information Service after gas hit $4 a gallon found that rural counties in the South and West were hit hardest. Families in many Southern counties, and several in Wyoming, are spending 10 to15 percent of their income on fuel. In most Utah counties the percentage ranges from 5 to 8, with the upper end settling in the state's remote southeastern corner.

Prices tend to be higher in the country, too. A gas station in Jensen charges 10 cents more -- $4.15 this week -- than its competitors in Vernal because of added delivery costs, Snow said.

She and her husband, Gawain, have started adjusting. They try to limit the grocery trips to once a week, though twice is still more common. They share rides in the Chevy Impala when they can, though often they'll need to use the less-efficient truck if they're picking up new tires or parts. Dinner and a movie is pretty much out these days.

"Cell phones really save us money because (neighbors) can be out and about and if we break something or need someone we call and say, 'Stop! Please go get us something at Big B (tractor store),'" she said.

One buffer to the costs is the fact that farm commodity prices generally are up, Gawain Snow said. He can't switch over to the high-profit strains of corn that have really escalated, though, because the Uintah Basin's growing season is too short.

"Your (profit) off the farm may be the same as last year but your personal costs have gone up, so in a sense you're losing ground," he said.

It might be that way for a long time on the range, Utah Farm Bureau Federation president Randy Parker fears. Eight-tenths of Utah's agriculture is in animal production, which, besides being energy-intensive, requires increasingly expensive grain feeds.

As American farmers do what they do best -- switch to crops to meet demand and bring prices down -- Parker fears fuel costs won't follow. The long-term result will be less income, but continuing high costs. Meantime, Utah farm families continue to have the nation's highest rate of off-farm income, which requires long drives to work.

"I'm worried that we're going to see a real problem for our farmers in the future," he said.

The federation's mid-summer conference, July 17-18 in Park City, will focus on fuel efficiency.