October is the turn in this part of Arkansas: sweetgum going red at the fence corners, cypress rusting over out in the sloughs, and the first honest cool air sliding in behind a front. D&m family works that season out, taking the last cuts low, clearing leaves from the beds and the ditch line, and putting the yard to bed tidy before the gray months. Winter runs short and mild enough that the bermuda only sleeps a little while. The rest of the year keeps its ordinary rhythm — a cut most weeks, the trimmer run along the fence, the drive swept clear of clippings. By February the yards are already leaning back toward green.