By mid-November the light in Ray Township comes in sideways all day and the frost holds in the shade until noon. Xtreme Exterior Services is finishing out the season then — final cuts taken a little shorter, leaves pulled off the lawn and out of the corners, beds and walks cleared so nothing sits and smothers the grass all winter. The rest of the year is the steady part: mowing across open township lots, trimming the strips too narrow for a mower, edging drives and walks so the boundary between grass and pavement stays exactly where it belongs. There is something satisfying about the last yard of the year, cut clean under a low orange sun with the fields already bare. Then the mowers go quiet and the ground rests.