Summer mornings here start as fog off the Sycamore Creek bottoms, and by seven it has burned back to the fence lines. That is when Loki's Lawn Care gets going in Alaiedon Township — mower down while the grass still has weight in it, the trimmer around the mailbox post, the drive blown clean at the end. Out in this part of Ingham County a yard is the one square of ground a person keeps by hand, and it deserves to look kept. There is a real satisfaction in the last pass, when the stripes line up with the road and nothing is left leaning over the sidewalk. Come October the same route runs again for the leaves, hauled off before the first hard rain glues them down.