On a June evening in Bristol the light goes long and low, sliding across the corn rows west of town and turning every mown lawn into something like velvet. Ethan's Handy Services works in that light — mowing, trimming, and cutting a crisp edge where the turf meets the drive. A yard here has to stand up to prairie sun and the sudden downpours that build off the flat horizon, so the cut is kept high and the lines kept true. Come autumn the leaves off the neighborhood maples get gathered before they mat down the grass. It is ordinary work done carefully, all around Bristol, Yorkville and Oswego.