At four in the morning on a storm night, West Peabody is streetlight and static, the snow coming sideways past the poles on Lowell Street. That is NEC Landscaping's hour — blade down, the driveway opened wide enough for a car to swing out without a second thought, the walk scraped to bare pavement and the icy corners treated before anyone steps outside. Come May the same trucks trade steel for mower decks, and the work turns to weekly cuts, trimmed fencelines and an edge along the sidewalk you could set a ruler against. They keep yards in the neighborhoods off Route 128 and out toward the Danvers line, week after week. It is plain work, and it shows: a clean drive before dawn, a lawn that looks tended even from a passing car.