Wolcott Mill still stands over the middle branch of the Clinton River in Ray Township, and the road out to it is one of the first things that needs opening after a January storm. Antonelli Landscape works those hours — the dark ones, before the township wakes and before the county truck has made its second pass. Driveways plowed end to end, walks cleared down to the surface, a run of salt where ice wants to form at the apron. There is a particular hush to snowfall out here, farmland absorbing sound in every direction, broken only by a truck backing up and the scrape of a blade. By the time headlights start moving on the mile roads, the drives they turn into are already open.