The work starts with a pull cord and the first low note of an engine, and then it is all hands and rhythm — the long sweep down the length of a yard, the trimmer's tight line around a fence post, the edger drawing a clean seam where grass gives way to walk. Siple Property Maintenance keeps lawns in Essex Junction, Vermont, where the Winooski bends its green curve past clapboard streets and Five Corners gathers the whole village together before letting it go again. The pleasure of it lives in the after: stripes laid straight across a dooryard, clippings swept off the sidewalk, a yard sitting square in valley light with the mountains gone soft and blue behind it. Summer in this valley is short and generous, and a lawn that holds its shape all the way through is a quiet, honest kind of pride.