February in Mount Olive melts by day and locks up again by night, and the long drives set back from the county roads feel it first. Rarick Contracting handles those — plowing, clearing walkways, and treating the ice that hardens in the ruts once the sun drops behind the trees. Snow work has a short window and no room for improvisation, so the routes get run in the same order storm after storm until the town is open. There is something deeply satisfying about a lane that runs back a few hundred feet and ends in bare gravel. It means somebody got up early so that somebody else did not have to.