A mower is a tool and a season is a deadline, and around DeKalb the two meet every week from April to October. Illini Outdoor Power puts the machines to work on lawns across town — cutting on a set rotation, trimming what the deck can't reach, edging drives and walks, and clearing yards down to bare turf at each end of the growing season. Sharp blades and the right cutting height do more for a lawn than anything fancier ever will. On flat prairie you can read a mowing pattern from a block away, which keeps a person honest. The result is a yard that looks finished rather than merely shortened.