Barges no longer crowd the canal at Lock 15, but the water still slides east past Fort Plain, and the grass along it grows hard and fast in July. Marshall's Lawn Care runs the mowing routes through Minden between thunderstorms, when the valley air goes heavy and the clouds stack up over the far hills. Trimming in tight around trunks and light poles, cutting the edge back along the walk, clearing the clippings — the details are where a mowed yard turns into a finished one. Spring and fall each get their own cleanup, beds opened up in one, leaves moved off the turf in the other before wet weather mats them down. Come evening the stripes still hold, and the yard looks square with the street.