October evening in Alabama: the light goes copper across the stubble and somebody is burning brush a half mile off toward Basom. Hound Lawn Service & Landscaping is finishing up in that light — the last mows of the year, leaves cleared off the grass in long straight passes, bed lines and walk edges cut sharp before the ground goes hard. Earlier in the season those same yards get the weekly treatment, mowing and trimming on a rhythm the summer sets for you. It is a scattered township of farms, hamlets and back roads, so the route runs long and the truck covers real miles between stops. Every one of them ends the same way: a yard that looks finished, and a place that looks minded.