The good part of tending the same ground all year is that you get to see both halves of it. In February a property is a plowed drive, a shoveled path to the door, and a roof watched carefully for load; by late May, when Independence Pass reopens and the high water is roaring down Hunter Creek, that same property is grass again and needs cutting every week. Groundskeepers of Aspen Inc works both ends — snow plowing, shoveling and de-icing through winter, then mowing, edging, trimming and cleanups once the ground lets go. Knowing a place in the cold makes you better at it in the warm: where the drifts pile, where the runoff cuts, which corner never quite dries out. The pleasure of the job is continuity — a drive clear before anyone is awake in January, and a lawn cut straight and even in July, on the same address.