The Vermillion River takes its time getting to the Missouri, bending through the bottomland in slow loops lined with cottonwoods that turn loud yellow come October. Rapid Creek Sod does lawn care along those flats and up into town, in the season when the grass slows down and every cut counts for more. Mowing lower as the days shorten, trimming back the ragged corners, edging drives so the last cuts of the year hold their line into freeze-up — it adds up to a lawn that goes into winter looking cared for rather than abandoned. There is something satisfying about a tidy yard under a bare-branch October sky. Rapid Creek Sod works Vermillion and the river country toward Meckling and Yankton.