First light on the Turquoise Trail in November: frost silvering the grass, the Ortiz Mountains cut black against an orange sky, every fence post throwing a shadow fifty feet long. El Toro Landscape works this southern country toward Cerrillos and Madrid, where yards sit hard against open range and the line between kept and unkept is a matter of will. The last mowing of the season goes short and even, dry stalks and leaves come out, walk margins are cut back to bare ground, and the shrubs are trimmed before the cold sets them for the winter. It is plain work with a plain result: a yard that looks deliberate through the months when nothing is growing to hide behind. The frost burns off by nine and the day gets on with itself.