Thaw comes late to New Ipswich, and when it finally does the whole town remembers the mower it put away wet last October. Fix It Shop takes them in — engines cleaned and started, blades sharpened, belts and cables and plugs replaced, machines tuned so they run through a full season of hill-town grass. A workbench is an honest place: the machine either runs when you're done or it doesn't. There is real pleasure in handing something back working that came in written off. Up here, where a lawn butts against woods and ledge, equipment earns its keep, and keeping it going is its own trade.