There are two seasons of work on Shelter Island, and White Oak Farm and Gardens takes both. The green months mean mowing the open, sandy-soiled yards, trimming along the old field walls, and hauling out the fall leaf drop; the cold ones mean plowing and shoveling before the day gets going. It is the same properties seen twice — a lawn learned in July is a driveway already memorized in January, every culvert and gatepost accounted for under the snow. This island grows grass in a hurry once the ground warms and gives it up just as fast when the wind swings north. Working straight across the turn of the year means nothing ever gets handed off half-finished.