First light in July, mourning doves on the wire, grass already soaked — that's when the day starts for Thompson lawn care. Mowing gets finished before the heat has any authority, then trimming around posts and steps, then the driveway blown off so nothing tracks indoors. The route runs weekly through the growing months, because an Arkansas summer will turn two skipped weeks into a different animal entirely. When the year lets go, the leaves come down and the work becomes hauling them away. Simple promises kept on schedule: the lawn mowed, the edges even, the place looking looked-after.