Spring arrives in Elsah as water: rain sliding off the bluff, the creek running loud through the village, ground too soft to hurry across. Slaten Outdoor Solutions (SOS) reads that ground before the season starts, deciding where to wait, where to seed, and which corner will hold a puddle into May. Then comes the opening cut of the year, the smell of it, the yard suddenly two shades brighter than the woods standing behind it. Through summer the work is steady and unhurried, mowing and trimming and keeping beds free of the vines that come down off the hillside. It is outdoor work for a place that has never once been flat.