Houghton Lake is twenty thousand acres of water with cottages ringing very nearly all of it, and every one of those lots wants to look right for the few months people are actually standing in them. Joe's Removal Service LLC keeps them cut — mowing sandy ground that comes on quick after a warm rain, trimming around decks, docks, fire rings and pines, edging the drives, hauling needles and leaves out at season's end. Lakeside yards are small and crowded with obstacles, so the work is patient rather than fast. Finished, a cottage lawn opens straight down to the water with nothing shaggy left in the way. Spring cleanup lifts the winter off it, and the season runs from ice-out to the first hard frost.