The Cass River runs quiet through town, and past it the Thumb gives itself over to dry beans and sugar beets, section after section, with the elevator standing above the rail line like a landmark you can steer by. Bean's Lawn Care LLC keeps yards in that country — mowed on schedule, trimmed tight to the foundation, edged where grass wants to creep across a walk. Come November the machines change and the job becomes snow: driveways plowed, lots cleared, salt on the places that glaze first. Harvest dust in September, drifted roads in January — Cass City lives by both, and so does the work. Either way, what is left behind is a property that looks looked-after.