By mid-October the Sapphire slopes east of town go gold in patches where the larch turn, and Hamilton lawns start taking on leaves faster than the wind can carry them off. Aspen Lawn Care LLC spends those short afternoons clearing them — blowing out the beds and fence corners, hauling the piles, giving the turf one last measured cut before the ground hardens. Cool nights make the grass tighten and hold its color, so a fall cleanup done all the way through is what a yard remembers all winter. There is real satisfaction in a lawn stripped clean to green under a bare tree at dusk. Come April that same yard wakes up ready instead of matted.