Aledo has a park in the middle of its square, and the ground west of town rolls off toward the Mississippi bluffs in a way that flat-Illinois jokes never account for. Etheridge Tree Services works that country — trimming crowns back off farmhouse roofs, pruning young shade trees so they hold together decades from now, removing the ash and silver maple that have reached their limit. Along the Edwards River the timber runs heavy and the ground goes soft, and taking a tree down there is a matter of choosing the drop and respecting it. When a straight-line wind crosses Mercer County and lays limbs over drives and fence rows, the crew clears the wreck and leaves the grass showing again. Nothing about it is complicated, and all of it is satisfying.