October comes down these ridges in stages — sweetgum first, then the oaks — until the yards around Pleasant Ridge are wearing more leaf than lawn. Hooten Brothers Landscaping answers with rakes and blowers and a last few cuts that mulch what they can and haul off the rest. There is a particular satisfaction in the moment a drift finally comes off a fence corner and the grass underneath turns out green and fine. Through the growing months it is the steady rhythm instead: mow, trim, edge, come back. Cool evening, woodsmoke somewhere down the hollow, a yard already put to bed for winter.