Down toward Big Bay Road the Hudson runs flat and wide along the bottom of Queensbury, and on an August morning the fog sits over the low ground until the sun burns it off around eight. Jim Girard Landscape Maintenance is generally out in it before that, because the grass cuts best while it's still cool and the day hasn't gotten loud yet. The work is mowing, trimming and edging, week after week, on lawns that get walked past and driven by and judged accordingly. There's real pleasure in coming back down a street you finished an hour ago and seeing the whole row of it standing even. Twice a year the routine breaks for the big cleanups, and then the properties go into the next season with nothing left over from the last.