Weather comes up the Connecticut River valley with plenty of warning and no mercy at all, and Hartford spends half the winter listening for it. Birch Mountain Earthworks LLC keeps the hours nobody volunteers for: blade down at two in the morning, the Bulkeley Bridge lights smeared soft in the falling snow. Snow removal is the whole of the work — driveways cut open, walkways cleared down to the pavement, salt and sand laid where the melt will refreeze before dawn. There is a particular pride in the first plowed lane on a street that was solid white an hour ago. By the time the river fog lifts, the day can simply start.