October mornings in the Des Plaines valley start under fog, the river breathing it up over the bottomland until the sun burns through near nine. Dahl Landscape works both ends of that calendar in Lockport — leaf cleanups and the last mowings of the year, then plow trucks and salt once the roads go white. Grass here pushes hard through June and slows through August, and how a lawn is closed out in fall decides how it looks in April. When a clipper drops down out of the northwest overnight, the job is simple and absolute: drive cleared, walk shoveled, nobody late for work. Come thaw, the mower deck comes off the shelf and it starts over.