Winter announces itself from the west, off Lake Michigan, and by four in the morning North Long Lake Road is a white ribbon with a set of headlights working down it. Augusta Lawn Care of Grand Traverse is out in that hour, plowing driveways so the first person through the door in Long Lake township meets pavement instead of a drift. Come May the same ground goes green in a hurry, and the work turns to mowing, trimming and the tidy line where turf gives way to gravel. There is a plain pleasure in a yard that reads well from the mailbox: the passes lying straight, the clippings blown off the walk. Snow removal and lawn care are two halves of one idea here, which is that a place should be easy to live in no matter what the sky is doing.