Before the streetlights give up on Rutland, the plow is already out, cutting a clean lane through a valley the Green Mountains spend all winter filling back in. Mountain Man Property Maintenance LLC works both halves of the Vermont year here — mowing, trimming and edging through the long green stretch, spring and fall cleanups raked out and hauled off, then plowing, shoveling and ice control once the ground goes hard again. The satisfaction is in what's left behind: a driveway opened down to bare pavement before the first cup of coffee, a walk scraped clean along an old marble-town sidewalk, a lawn striped even and holding its line all the way to the road. Otter Creek keeps its course no matter the month; this is the work that keeps the ground around it walkable, drivable and worth looking at, week after week, in Rutland and the towns nearby.