The Maple River wanders through Clinton County flat and slow, and the farm yards along it stand open to whatever the sky is doing. Allied Lawn & Landscape mows that ground around Duplain, Elsie and Ovid, running long even passes across the big lawns and trimming in tight where the buildings and fence posts begin. Edges get cut along drives and walks so the shape of a yard stays legible from the road. Spring cleanups pull the winter off, and fall cleanups take the leaves down before the first real snow arrives. A farmhouse lawn cut clean to the field edge, with the corn standing beyond it, looks like the season is being kept up with.