Crazy Idea?

This may sounds a little odd after all of my excitement about rising temperatures, but I have also been thinking about the problem of snow removal. A conversation with my step-mother a few weeks ago got wheels turning in my head. She told me that her father once made a snowplow that he hooked up to his horse and went around the neighborhood clearing everyone's sidewalks.

After searching the internet for a while, I came up with this picture. (If you click on the image, I believe it will give you a larger view.) It is an 18th century horse-drawn snowplow reconstruction that was built in Germany. I don't imagine this is anything like the one her father used.

Call me crazy, but that looks as if it would be really simple to build. It is basically a box with a wedge shape attached to the front of it to push the snow to the sides of the road. I have lumber that I could use sitting around and could make a scaled down version. What I don't have is a horse. This is where the crazy part comes in...I started wondering why I couldn't pull it down the driveway with our van!

I don't know if I'll actually try it but I think it's a cool idea and would probably work. The only problem that I have read related by old-timers who remember seeing them used was that they tended to wander back and forth behind the team as the snow drifts on each side pushed it sideways.

It would be fun to try it but I suppose it would let the neighbors know what kind of a nut moved into the neighborhood before I've had a chance to introduce myself!