The hills close in around Van Etten, and Cayuta Creek threads the valley floor between them with everybody's yard crowded into the narrow part. Jamie VanEtten tree service works on that pitch — felling uphill, rigging down a slope, taking out the ash that gave up before the hillside did. Autumn wind comes over the ridge with weight behind it, and a storm here means limbs on a barn roof and a driveway blocked at the steep end. Pruning keeps the dooryard trees off the porch and the power drop clear, which in a valley with one road out is worth doing early. The best part of the day is the last look back: brush gone, ground clean, the hillside quiet again.