Mullett Lake runs long and deep beside Indian River, and the properties along its shore keep time with the calendar — full in August, shuttered and silent by November. Summer work there is mowing, edging and trimming right down to the treeline, along with the cleanups that follow a spring thaw or a windy October week. Winter is a different route entirely: plowing shore roads and drives, clearing steps and walkways, salting where a north slope stays frozen straight through to March. Cheboygan County snow does not so much fall as accumulate, patiently, night after night. Getting a lane opened so somebody can reach their own front door is the whole of the point.