Spring in the Grand Valley arrives as water — the ditches come up, the cottonwoods along the Colorado turn pale green, and every yard in Fruita wakes at once. Western slope irrigation keeps those lawns cut and tidy through the long bright summer, when the light clears the mesa early and the heat rides in by ten. There is real pride in a crisp edge along a Fruita sidewalk, the clippings swept off the concrete and the strip by the curb squared true. Autumn brings the cleanup work, leaves off the grass before the first hard freeze pushes down out of the high country. Then the short sharp storms of a high-desert winter, and the same crew is out plowing drives and scraping walks so the run down to Highway 6 & 50 starts easy. Mowing, trimming, cleanups and snow — plain work, done well, for Fruita and the valley around it.