Adel wakes early, and so does the work. Before the sun clears the pines along the county roads, the Bermuda is still silver with dew and the air is cool enough to be worth using. A&J Lawn Care takes the morning while it lasts — mowing, trimming, edging clean along the walk — so a yard is finished before the South Georgia heat leans in for the afternoon. There is a plain satisfaction in a lawn cut in straight passes, the clippings blown off the drive, the line at the curb sharp as a chalk mark. Around Adel and the crossroads towns nearby, that is the whole of the ambition: a yard that looks like somebody meant it.