By late November the pines north of Americus have dropped their straw in a thick copper mat, and that straw is half the season's work in this part of Georgia. Nobles Landscaping & Tree Service works right alongside it — landscaping and tree work, limbs taken down, brush hauled off, beds re-strawed, lawns mowed and edged while the Bermuda is still awake. Cold mornings out here come in clear and blue, frost on the truck bed, everything sharp-edged until about ten. A property put to bed for winter — beds dressed, canopy thinned, ground raked back smooth — holds that look until spring. It's a good stretch of the year for people who like seeing a job finished.