Late August in Missouri holds its heat well past supper; the cicadas wind up in the shade trees and the light goes orange over Cotton Hill. Bootheel Lawn Co. keeps mowing into that hour, once the ground has let go of the worst of the afternoon and the grass stands back up to meet the blade. Trimming along fence lines, a tight border where lawn gives way to gravel, clippings cleared off the walk — the same short list every week, done the same way every time. When fall comes the job turns to leaves and to the last cut before frost. There is a quiet reward in a yard that looks finished the moment you back the truck out of the drive.