The Clinton River slips through Drayton Plains under the sycamores, and by late October every street along it has turned to leaf work. Chad's Landscaping Inc runs the mowers until the grass finally stops growing, then clears the drifts of oak and maple off the turf so it can breathe under the snow. Once the ground hardens the trucks change over and the same streets get plowed — drives opened, walks cut, curb ends pushed back clean. There's a rhythm to serving one township all the way around the calendar: you learn which drive holds ice and which lawn floods in a thaw. Spring finds the crew back with the mower, tracing the same lines again.