Alto sits up where the Piedmont starts thinking about mountains, and on a July morning the fog lies in the hollows below the ridge until the sun burns it loose. D & C Lawn Care works those yards — the ones cut into red clay and grade, where a mower has to respect a slope. Mowing, edging, string trimming, and a blow-down of the walks and the drive at the end; the lines left behind run true even where the ground doesn't. Come autumn the hardwoods off toward Lake Russell let go all at once, and the leaves get gathered before they mat down over the grass. It is plain work, done carefully, on the hills above the Chattahoochee's headwaters.