July in Hardyston smells like cut hay for about two weeks, and the fields above Hamburg go from standing green to stubble in a single afternoon of good weather. MCR'S OUTDOOR SERVICES scales that same idea down to house lots: grass cut at the right height, trimmed tight to posts and steps, edges pulled back off the concrete, clippings dealt with. Heat and thunderstorms trade places all summer in this valley, and lawns answer by growing in bursts. Keeping up means showing up. There is an unshowy kind of pride in a property that never once got away from you all season.