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Comment by dougmwne | Hacker News Reader

Only people who have no experiences with snow could think this is a good idea:) The most likely result is tht the tarp would freeze onto the ground and you'd never get it to budge.

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A thick layer of grease under the tarp would solve that problem...

Now you have a worse problem

Just add gravel and sand to the grease? Or just wear spiked shoes.

yeah, I feel like this would only work with powder, which happens where I live happens twice a year if we're lucky?

You can use a leaf blower on powder too.

Please god no. We have to endure leaf blowers in the autumn for people too lazy to rake - don’t also use these infernal machines in the winter.

Works faster than a shovel. Less noise.

Are you saying a leaf blower makes less noise than a snow shovel? In what reality?

In mine?

Maybe your thinking of a gas powered leaf blower?

I am not.

I tried that once, it didn't actually work. You had to put the nozzle directly into the snow to make it move, snow is just too heavy and sticky.

It definitely wouldn't work at all with remotely wet snow, but a guy at work claims it works great with dry powder. Based on how easy that blows around in the wind I didn't doubt it.

I suppose I should not have said “too” but I was specifically talking about powder.

+1 - I don’t think this would work on the wet, angry snow we get in Minnesota in the winter.

If you throw your back out by trying to jerk the frozen tarp off the ground, you'll have the perfect excuse for not clearing snow. Genius!

If you receive a fine from your municipality for not clearing the snow off the sidewalk that you dumped off your tarp you get even more grief from the back spasms! The ''snow police'' (zealous bylaw enforcers) are a real thing in some places.

Solve that by living somewhere that sidewalks are rare. I’d swear they’re practically illegal here in Indianapolis.

I was surprised once to see frozen, dangerous sidewalks in front of a law firm, but I suppose no one is going to be foolish enough to sue them.

This is the secret advantage to culdesacs and dead end streets that people don’t often talk about. No sidewalk to be responsible for!

Having a public thoroughfare that you’re legally responsible for on your property is a PITA liability.

Just put the tarp over a platform with some wheels, and a track. Problem solved

just have a second tarp. Or even two tarps with a slippery tarp between them? A tarp sandwich?

Just have a pile of tarps. Peel them off like post-it notes. Replace in fair weather.

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