Knox County keeps its timber down in the draws, where the ground folds toward the Spoon River and the light comes through in bars all summer long. A To Z Tree & Stump Service works both ends of the calendar out here — mowing and trimming the open ground through the growing months, then plowing and salting when the weather turns hard and the same lanes need opening at five in the morning. Yard cleanups in November clear the mat of oak and hickory leaves that always collects on the lee side of a house. A drive cut clean to the gravel, banks pushed well back, is the difference between a storm being an event and a storm being an inconvenience. Between Knox, Knoxville and Galesburg, the lanes get opened one after another until the county is moving again.