With the leaves down you can see clear across Burton's back lots, and the bare trees stand out black against a sky the color of an old nickel. That is snow weather, and Thirsty Tree LLC works in it — plowing driveways and lots, clearing walkways, and salting where ice sets up after a thaw. Storms here come in off the lakes and sometimes down out of the Thumb, and neither kind cares what time it is. Clearing a property well means getting the full width of the drive, squaring the corners, and not leaving a berm across the mailbox or the sidewalk. There is a plain pleasure in seeing bare pavement behind the truck at first light.