In November the sandhill cranes come down the Rio Grande in ragged lines, calling the whole way, and the valley goes quiet underneath them. Trees R'Us is finishing the year's last cuts about then — a final pass over the lawn, the leaves pulled off before frost pins them down, the borders taken back tight before winter. There's a particular pleasure in closing a yard out clean. It waits well that way, pale and level, through the cold months on the valley floor. And it wakes faster in spring for it.