After dark, when the temperature over Spencer Creek drops hard enough to turn the day's melt back into a hazard, Premier Landscaping & Excavation is often still out, running plows past the little country church at the crossroads and up the ridge past the limestone outcrops that mark this stretch of central Missouri. The company's excavation equipment, built for moving earth and cutting grade, doubles for the region's snow, clearing driveways and lanes long after most porch lights have gone dark. Ice tends to form first on the bridge over the creek and on the shaded north side of the ridge, and the crew learns to hit those spots before circling back for the open stretches. Working at night means working by headlight and memory, tracing routes across Spencer Creek's farms and back roads that daylight would make easier but that the storm won't wait for. By the time the sky over the ridge starts to gray, the lanes are cleared and the lights in the farmhouses start coming on.