Shady Dale is pasture country — hayfields, cattle, big oaks holding down the fence corners, and a night sky with very little to compete with it. Yards out this way tend to run generous, sloping off toward the tree line, and keeping one sharp takes a real morning's work. That means mowing the open ground in long straight passes, trimming close to every post and trunk, edging where the drive gives way to grass, then blowing the whole place clean. Jasper County summers push the growth hard from May through September, so visits stay on a weekly rhythm. Late in the day the cut grass holds the light a little longer than the pasture does, and that is the part worth doing well.