Alamosa takes its name from the cottonwoods, and Absmeier Landscaping & Construction, LLC works in their shade all summer, on the streets that run down toward the Rio Grande. Lawn care here means coaxing green out of a high valley floor where the sun arrives hard and the nights fall away cold, so the mowing lines get walked straight and the borders cut sharp, and the difference shows from the sidewalk. Come winter the same trucks carry blades, and the crew is out ahead of the workday opening drives and walks while the river runs black between white banks. Snow in this valley is dry enough to squeak underfoot and light enough to blow back across a lot twice, which is why a pass gets made and then made again. There is real satisfaction in a yard that looks tended and a driveway that lets a car out at seven in the morning.