Third Hand Earthworks

About Third Hand Earthworks

Early morning in Barkhamsted, when mist is still lifting off the West Branch of the Farmington and the ridge roads run striped with shade, is when the machines start moving. Third Hand Earthworks is a tractor and excavation outfit working Connecticut's northwest corner — forestry mulching overgrown hillsides back into open ground, clearing brush and grinding out stumps, cutting grade and trenching drainage so water goes where it ought to, and smoothing the ruts from gravel drives. The satisfaction is in what's left behind: a pasture reclaimed from thorn, a woodlot thinned until you can see clear through to a stone wall you'd forgotten you owned, a driveway that runs true up to the door. This is country of ledge and hemlock and old field edge, and when the Litchfield Hills go white they keep the snow moved off it too.