The first real snow usually finds the woods at Wixom Habitat sometime in November, quiet, and gone again by Thursday. Maplewood Site Solutions treats it as the opening bell — trucks checked, salt loaded, routes set for the drives and lots that will need them clear through March. Winters here are less about one great storm than about persistence: clipper after clipper, an ice event, a thaw, another freeze. Steady work beats heroic work, and steady is what gets a property open every single morning. A driveway cleared before the household wakes is a small kindness that never gets mentioned, which is fine.