Out on the Clayton plain the day starts honest: a flat pink horizon, meadowlarks, and maybe two hours of stillness before the wind stands up for good. Best Western Kokopelli Lodge takes that early half of the day for mowing, getting the grass cut and the edges run while the air is calm enough to keep the clippings where they belong. Union County lawns are hard-won — shortgrass country, high and dry at five thousand feet — so the cut is set to leave the blades long enough to hold their own moisture. Trimming tidies the fence lines, the mailbox and the concrete seams the mower always misses. By the time the flags along the highway are snapping, the yard is finished and the truck is on to the next one.