Up Piedra Road the hay meadows run flat between stands of ponderosa, and the year swings hard between them: deep green in July, deep white by December. Eli Stephens landscaping llc works both ends of that swing around Pagosa Springs, cutting and trimming through the short warm months and plowing drives and walks once the cold sets in. Thunderheads build over the San Juans most afternoons in late summer, which makes mowing a running conversation with the sky. Winter is simpler and harder — get up, get out, open the road. Either way the aim holds steady: a place that looks tended, and works.