Head west out of Albany and the streets eventually give way to hayfields somewhere past Voorheesville, where September light comes in gold and low across everything already cut. Lawn care carries the same plain arithmetic — grass gets shortened, edges get defined, the clippings go away, and a property looks composed again by supper. Mowing, string trimming, edging, hedge trimming, mulch, seeding and cleanups fill the season, from the first green push in April to the last leaf haul in November. Out on the western edge the soil runs sandier and the wind is more constant, so those lawns dry faster than the ones downtown and get watered by a different logic. Finishing a day with a yard that looks unmistakably tended is reason enough to start early again tomorrow.