Mercer County spends most of its winter right on the line where snow turns to rain and turns back again, so a Trenton storm has to be watched all night rather than merely forecast. Hughes Landscaping & Snow Plowing runs the long hours that go with that, plowing drives while it is still falling, coming back for the wet inches that set up like concrete by four in the morning, shoveling steps and salting where the melt will refreeze. There is a real pleasure in finishing a route at first light, headlights sweeping down a street where every apron is open and nobody is going to be late. Once the ground thaws the same properties turn back into lawns, and the schedule shifts to mowing, edging, trimming and the cleanups that bracket the growing season. It is one long year of showing up, in whichever form the weather is taking.