Fairview sits up on the jack pine plains, where the sand is pale, the nights stay cool into June, and the forest starts again at the edge of every clearing. Northeastern Lawn Maintenance mows the yards cut out of that country — cabins, farmhouses, the wide lawns along the county roads — keeping the grass even where the ground would rather grow moss and needles. Trimming runs the perimeter: pine trunks, the woodpile, the post-and-rail, the propane tank. Cleanup in spring means hauling off a winter's worth of needles and blown-down branches before the first cut of the year. By August, a mowed lawn ringed in dark pine is about as good as northern Michigan looks.