The Rapid River runs north out of this county toward Torch Lake, and the roads that follow it drift shut fast when the wind comes across open ground. Rapid river plow service knows those approaches — long two-tracks, gravel drives, the turnaround that has to be wide enough for a delivery truck — and clears them with a blade before first light. Walkways get shoveled and the ice gets treated, because an open drive is only half of getting out. When the banks finally go down, those same drives and yards get mowed, trimmed and raked out for the short bright stretch of a Kalkaska summer. It is plain work, done in the cold and the green alike.