Mid-morning the narrow gauge whistles out of the roundhouse and the sound rolls the length of the valley — you can hear it right over a running mower, and most Durango summers get measured by it. J & J Landscaping LLC works straight through those hours: cutting grass on schedule, trimming what the deck leaves behind, bordering walkways and drives, and clearing the yard of whatever the season drops on it. Coal smoke, cottonwood fluff and a level lawn are about as June as this town gets. The work is repetitive by design, because turf answers to repetition and to almost nothing else. By the time the whistle comes back down the valley in the afternoon, the yard is finished and the tools are loaded.