On October dawns the balloons rise over the North Valley and drift low above Los Ranchos, close enough that you can hear the burners over the treetops. Carmona Perez is usually already working by then, mowing yards, trimming along walls and posts, and cutting a neat margin where grass meets the drive. Autumn also means cottonwood leaves, which fall in earnest here, and clearing them off the turf is steady work until the branches stand bare. None of it gets left in mounds along the fence; it is bagged and carried off. A tidy lawn in this village, with the Sandias standing over it, is a pleasure to hand back.