Morning in Custer starts with fog lying in the low ground and the smell of cut grass by seven. Johns Lawn Services (JLS) keeps the mowing routes out here — yards cut on their regular week, trimmed around posts and downspouts, edged along the walk, and left with the drive grass-free before the truck pulls away. Farm-town lots run wide, which gives the stripes room to show, and there's real pleasure in a big yard that reads as one piece instead of three separate afternoons. From May on, the grass in this part of Illinois grows like it has somewhere to be, and fall brings a leaf drop that wants gathering before the first hard rain flattens it. The job is simple and it is not easy: be there on the day, and leave the place looking better than the morning found it.