Ashfield sits high enough that the road up from the valley climbs out of one weather and into another — the South River falling away below, the Bug Hill fields opening at the top. Higher Ground Land Management LLC plows and clears through hilltown winters and mows, edges and cleans up through the short, bright growing season. Dirt roads here freeze, thaw and go to mud in their own order, and much of the work is knowing which one is which on a given morning. Winter means driveways cut open before the school bus, walks shoveled, sand on the steep pitches; summer means grass cut even across sloping ground, then leaves hauled when October comes down all at once. It is a hilltown living, done the way the hilltowns ask for.