Spring reaches central Michigan as mud first and green second, and the week between the two is when the phone starts ringing. LS LANDSCAPE CO answers with cleanups — winter debris raked out, beds edged, matted grass combed loose so a yard can breathe — then settles into steady mowing and trimming for the rest of the season. Ithaca sits within easy reach of Alma, St. Louis and the farm crossroads scattered between them, and the work travels those two-lanes all summer long. There is a plain pleasure in the first cut of the year, laying lines on grass that hasn't seen a blade since October. After that it becomes rhythm, week by week, until the leaves come down again.