Late December strips the cottonwoods along Riverside Park down to gray bones, and the whole town seems to lean into the cold. Blue Ox Tree Care spends that stretch of the year on snow — plowing drives, clearing walks, and digging out the tight corners a blade cannot reach, often around trees they know the shape of by heart. There is a rhythm to it: push, stack, then come back when the wind rearranges the work. The payoff is a path to the door before the kids are up and a driveway that does not glaze over by dark. They cover Salida, Poncha Springs, Smeltertown and the neighborhoods along the river.