Taylor County runs to sand ridges and longleaf pine, the Flint River country off to the east and open sky enough between the trees to see weather coming for miles. Heath Tree Care works Butler and the roads out from it, pruning oaks around old farmhouses, trimming limbs to clear the roof and the lane, and removing pines that lean a little further each year. Middle-Georgia summers stack their storms up in the afternoon, and when one leaves a mess the cleanup takes the yard back to bare ground and carries every last piece away. In the cool part of the year the work slows into shaping — deadwood out, the crown balanced, the tree set up for another decade. It's a plain sort of pride: a place that looks kept.