On Van Schaick Island the morning arrives off the water first, cool along the Mohawk before it ever reaches the porches. A&S Home Services LLC starts there — mower loaded, string trimmer humming, the first stripe laid down while the grass is still holding dew. The work is plain and it is exact: clean lines, edges cut true along the walk, clippings gathered so a yard looks settled rather than merely shortened. Cohoes is a city of tight lots and long histories, and a well-kept lawn is how a house says it is cared for. By the time the day warms over the river, another block looks a little better than it did.