Breakup in Hancock is a season all its own: banks slumping gray, meltwater running down the hill toward the waterway, gravel showing through for the first time since November. Superior Land Improvements works both ends of that swing — plowing, blowing and clearing through the deep months, then mowing, trimming and cleanup once the copper-country ground dries enough to walk on. Land this rocky and this steep teaches you to work with what is already there. A lawn kept even on a Keweenaw slope, a drive held open through a winter that measures itself in feet — both are small victories, and both get earned. By August the yards here are as green as anywhere on earth, and briefly, gloriously easy.