Take the road north out of Elmira toward Horseheads and you are in open country inside of four minutes — flat fields, wide sky, wind with nothing at all to slow it down. T.H.O.R.O.U.G.H.B.R.E.D. SERVICES works that stretch and the city behind it, mowing and trimming lawns through the warm months, then turning to plowing, shoveling and salting when the Southern Tier goes under. Open ground makes its own weather in winter, drifting a driveway shut twice in a single night. The answer is pace: come back, cut it again, keep the edges clean. Steady beats spectacular in either season.