South and west of Murphysboro the road climbs into orchard country, where the hills roll toward Pomona and September air smells like apples and cut grass at the same time. Howell Lawn Care works the whole calendar in that landscape, mowing and edging and feeding through the long green months, then chasing leaves, then dropping a plow blade when the year turns. Southern Illinois summers ask a great deal of a lawn, and keeping one thick and even out here is a weekly conversation rather than a one-time fix. Winter asks something else entirely: be up early, open the drive, salt the walk, move on to the next one. Two kinds of work, one habit, which is to leave a place better than it was found.