On a summer evening the light comes in low through the red pines near Interlochen State Park and lays long shadows across grass cut that same afternoon. Keeping a lawn looking like that through a short northern growing season takes a mow every week, an edge along every walk and bed, and trimming tight to the trees so nothing reads half-finished. Autumn brings the cleanup — needles, leaves, storm litter, all of it off the turf before the ground freezes solid. Then the year turns over and the work becomes plowing drives, shoveling steps and walkways, and salting the spots that ice first. Four seasons is not a figure of speech out here; it is an accurate description of the calendar.