October loosens the maples over the Millers River, and the work of Winchendon Wood turns with the shortening light — the mower giving way to the saw, the last green cut taken before the first hard frost sets in. This is a tree service, a lawn service, and a snow crew, moving across the old Toy Town streets and the wooded ridges that climb north toward the New Hampshire line. There is a plain satisfaction in the trades they keep: a yard held trim through the long north-county summer, a leaning limb brought down clean, a driveway opened to bare pavement before anyone in the house has stirred. When the granite hills go white and the ice sets on Lake Monomonac, they are already out ahead of the light, clearing the way. What they leave behind is a place that holds its shape — trimmed, cleared, and ready for whatever the next season carries down off the hills.