The hills stand close over Frankfort, and the neighborhoods climbing them look down on a valley that is mostly canopy from up there. Simpson's Tree Services works those slopes and the flats out toward Cove Spring — pruning hardwoods that grew tall reaching for light, trimming out the deadwood a steep yard hides so well. Removal on a hillside is a rigging problem before it is a cutting one, and the plan gets made from the ground up. Thunderstorms build fast over the Elkhorn country in summer; afterward the hillside yards are cleared limb by limb until the steps and the parking pad are usable again. The reward shows up in fall, when the ridges color over a town whose trees are in good order.