On an August morning the fog sits low in the Tioughnioga valley and lifts off the Cortland hillsides one street at a time. RK tree service works up and down those slopes — trimming maples and ash back from the rooflines, pruning young shade trees into a frame that holds, taking down the ones that have been shedding their crowns limb by limb. A hillside removal is all rigging: ropes set, limbs lowered, the trunk walked down with the flower beds untouched. Wind funnels along the valley and leaves plenty behind it, and the storm damage cleanup carries on until the driveway and the beds are clear. There is a plain pleasure in the after — grass, sky, and a straight line where a tangle used to be.