Little Bay de Noc turns silver a good while before Escanaba is awake, and the first cut of the day goes down while the grass still holds dew. This is lawn care shaped by a short and generous northern summer: mowing on a set week, trimming close along fences and foundations, edging that leaves a clean seam between green and gray. Delta County ground grows fast once June arrives, and the only answer is showing up before it gets ahead of anybody. Cleanups bracket the season at both ends — the matted thatch of spring, the maple drift of October. By the time the afternoon light comes back off the water, the stripes are still lying exactly the way they were laid.