Around Sumner the pumpjacks still nod at the field edges, and the Wabash bottoms lie east of town under weather of their own making. Weston's Lawn Service keeps yards through the green months — mowing, trimming, edging, seasonal cleanups — and then turns to plowing the drives, shoveling the walks and salting whatever freezes when a southeastern Illinois winter decides to arrive all at once. Storms down here can be rain at noon and glazed concrete by dark, so some weeks the salt matters more than the blade does. There is a good feeling in a drive already open before anyone has had to think about it. And in March, when the ridges toward Red Hills go pale green, it all begins again with a first cut.