Nate's Fine Grading

About Nate's Fine Grading

First light in a Yancey County cove comes up pale blue, and everything — pasture, fence wire, the roofline of the barn — carries the same half inch of white. The Parkway gates are shut for the season and the mountains keep to themselves. Nate's Fine Grading starts before that light, plowing farm lanes and driveways, clearing walkways, putting down ice melt where the cattle gate meets the road. Winter up here is rarely one event; it is a long argument with the mountains, one round after another. Every round ends the same way, though — a lane opened end to end and a place to park.