Richmond is mostly forest — a handful of roads and ponds set into the hills at the southern end of Monadnock country. Every lawn out here is a clearing somebody made on purpose, and L A O'Brien & Son's Lawn Services keeps those clearings from going back to the woods. September is the honest month: grass still growing, Tully Brook running low, and the first leaves already dropping onto the mowing route. They cut, trim, edge and clean up, hauling out the needles and leaves that fall thickest where the trees crowd in close. A neat lawn ringed by deep woods is a good-looking argument for living this far out.