Prairie weather announces itself early — by two in the afternoon the thunderheads are stacked white and enormous in the west, and everyone within sight of them knows what the evening holds. Collins Lawncare LLC reads that sky the way it reads a lawn, cutting ahead of the rain and coming back once the ground firms up again. July storms leave grass that seems to grow overnight, so mowing here is a conversation, not a chore: keep pace, keep the height right, keep the edges from creeping into the gravel. There is real satisfaction in the last pass of a hot day, the mower shut off and the yard suddenly quiet and even. Between the rains, this corner of Illinois turns a deep and generous green. The work is simply keeping up with it.