The Vermilion River cuts a wooded gorge right past Streator, and the town above it still carries the square-shouldered look of a place that made glass and brick for a living. Gavin's Lawncare & Landscaping runs the year in two halves there: mowing, trimming, edging and landscape upkeep through the growing season, then plowing drives, opening walks and treating ice once the valley starts throwing up cold fog at dusk. Winter nights here go clear and enormous — the kind that once kept a local farm boy looking up long enough to find a planet — and clear nights are exactly when wet pavement refreezes, so the salt goes down with that in mind. A drive opened before dawn is the quietest sort of good news. Then April, and the mowers again.