First light near Gilcrest comes across the whole eastern sky at once: a meadowlark on a fencepost, dust hanging over a gravel road, and the Front Range standing pale and blue on the far horizon. Wrangler Services is rolling by then, working lawns and acreages up and down the South Platte valley — mowing, trimming, edging, lot and field clearing, and cleanups at the turn of each season. Country properties out here run big and open, so a day gets measured in acres and in the way the light travels across them between breakfast and supper. There is genuine pleasure in the last look back down a place: the lawn cut smooth, the fenceline knocked back, and a yard holding its own against all that sky.