Half of Ashburnham's driveways are long, dirt and hemlock-dark, running two hundred feet back off the road before a house even comes into view. Greene's Stump Removal plows them out all winter, cutting the whole length open, squaring the turnaround, shoveling the steps and sanding the grades that glaze over. Storms come in fast off the northwest and drop more than the forecast promised, so the trucks go out at three in the morning and go out again at noon. A drift can wall in a garage door overnight; by breakfast it should be gone. Getting people down off the hill and onto the road is the point of it, one driveway at a time.