Round Oak keeps company with the Piedmont National Wildlife Refuge, where pines stand over Rum Creek and the county road stays quiet most of the day. Spring shows up early here — dogwood in the understory, then a green flush that has the grass ready to cut before anybody is ready to cut it. So the mower comes out: straight passes across the open yard, close trimming around porch posts and pine trunks, an edge reset along the walk, clippings blown back into the turf. Jones County heat gets long by June, which is why the work starts early and holds a steady pace. A yard in these woods ought to feel like a clearing somebody tends, and that is exactly what it gets.