The St. George River starts up in these hills and slides down past Searsmont village, where the sawmill smell of fresh spruce hangs in the air on a warm afternoon. Bragg's Lawn Services mows and maintains lawns along Route 173 and the back roads toward Belmont and Appleton, where yards give way to woods without much argument about it. Winter hands the work over to plowing and clearing, and inland Waldo County piles it up quietly — no drama, just more of it every week. A cleared drive on a still January morning, woodsmoke going straight up from the chimney, is about as good as a picture gets around here. Mowed or plowed, the idea is a place that's easy to come home to.