By the second week of October the hills above the Jail Branch have gone copper and the leaves start arriving in Barre yards faster than anybody can keep up with. S & F Landscaping meets that head-on — raking and hauling the fall load out, cutting the grass down one last careful time, then coming back in April to pull the winter matting off and get the lawns breathing again. Between those two ends of the year it's mowing and trimming, week after week, on lots that step up the hillsides in tiers. Cold settles into this valley early and lingers, so the growing season here has to be worked while it lasts. A yard raked bare and swept clean before the first hard freeze is a fine way to close out a season.