Summer in Sparta builds all afternoon, heat stacking over the rolling ground west of town until the thunderheads come on and the cicadas go quiet. Grass in this corner of Randolph County grows thick and fast between those storms, so the mowing runs early, wheel tracks laid in even stripes across yards that rise and fall with the land. Trimming follows, tight to the oak trunks and the fence lines, and an edge along the drive gives the yard a border visible from the road. Autumn brings the leaf work — hickory and oak coming down in a slow rain over a week or two, cleared off in more than one pass. A lawn cut and cleared before the weather turns is an ordinary kind of pride, and it holds.