First frost west of Vinita arrives on a still morning, pasture silver to the fence, the cottonwoods along the draw letting go all at once. Kelley's Tree service works that open country and the town lots at the edge of it, where trees are few enough that every one of them matters to somebody. A trim is a conversation with the wind — thin the crown, drop the dead limbs, leave the shade a herd stands in all August. Pruning keeps a young tree growing away from the wire instead of into it. Storm work is the other half of the job, and it isn't done until the last limb is off the drive and the pasture road is passable before dark.