In October the cottonwoods along the La Plata River turn the color of lamplight, and for a few weeks everything that lets go seems to land on somebody's grass. Larry's Fix It Shop works through that drift, raking and clearing leaves and stray limbs off lawns around La Plata so the turf heads into the cold uncovered. The rest of the year runs on mowing and trimming, with a tidy seam kept where the lawn stops and the driveway starts and the corners squared up by hand. There is a plain satisfaction in stepping back from a yard that was shaggy an hour ago and finding every blade at the same height. Come spring the same hands go back over it, and the green that rises in this narrow high-desert valley gets its full chance.