The first cut of the year in Shinglehouse comes late — the hollows hold frost deep into spring, and the grass waits on the creek bottoms to dry. When it finally goes, it goes all at once, and Friendly Core LLC meets it with mowers, trimmers and rakes, clearing off the winter's litter of maple twigs and matted leaves before the season gets ahead of anybody. Steady mowing, tidy edges, beds raked out fresh: small things that make a house look glad to be lived in. Summer on this plateau is short and green and well worth keeping neat. The work goes on with one eye on the sky, the way everyone here keeps theirs.