Winter mornings in eastern Pike County begin long before light reaches the fencerows. Wind crosses the open ground around Milton and stacks snow into long ridges over gravel and county blacktop, and that is where Advanced Landscaping's day starts — plowing a drive open so the first trip to town happens in a warm truck instead of behind a shovel. When the ground softens, the blade comes off and the mowers go on, and the work turns to weekly cuts, close trimming, and edges that hold their line along a walk. A yard out here can be seen from a long way off across flat bottom ground, and it shows when someone has taken care with it. Lawn care in the green months, snow clearing in the white ones, for Milton and the small towns spread around it.