In Beekmantown the wind comes across Lake Champlain with nothing to slow it down, and winter here is not an event but an occupation — months of it, drifting the open ground between Point au Roche and Rand Hill. Rand Hill Lawns, Inc. plows through all of it, opening driveways and farm lanes storm after storm and salting the walks so the ice never gets a foothold. The green season is short and generous by comparison: the grass comes on fast in June, and mowing, trimming and cleanups run straight through to the early frost. There is real satisfaction in a lane cleared curb to curb before the sun clears the lake. Up here that is not a courtesy, it is how the day starts.