The northern summer up here is short and enormously bright — light still on the water past nine in the evening, and grass that grows like it knows the season is on a clock. We mow through that stretch on a tight rotation, because a week missed in July turns into two weeks of catching up. Edges are run along the walks, the trimming goes tight to the foundations and the fence line, and the clippings leave with us. Spring cleanup is the big one after an Ontonagon winter: sand, branches and matted leaves raked away so the yard can wake up evenly. By the final cut in fall the lawn is short and clean and set for the long white months ahead.