Not so green (and yellow) with envy

There’s apparently something about a John Deere tractor. We have one and every guy-type who has visited from more suburban lifestyles has oozed something along the lines of, “Oooh, you have a John Deere!” It’s said with the same longing and appreciation as the first time I noticed my in-laws’ new addition to their living room: “Ooooh, you have plantation shutters!”

So a tractor is a good thing to have, when one has multiple acres to mow. The couple we bought our house from moved to a more cosmopolitan area – Wenatchee – so they had no need for their riding mower. They were kind enough to sell us what we were lead to believe was their trusty, well-maintained John Deere, circa about 8 years ago.

It turns out keeping a riding mower operational is a hobby in and of itself. The folks at our local JD dealer know us by model number (318). They’ve come and hauled our tractor away enough times that I’ve wondered if maybe we need to get a trailer to do the transport ourselves (it could double for llama hauling!). Rob has taken the deck apart so many times, I actually know what that part is. We’ve had belts and screws and blades replaced. The mower has its own file in our filing cabinet. It has its own category in Quicken. It might soon have its own blog.

The nice thing about the tractor-mower is the gentle hum of the engine as Rob drives pretty patterns in our yard and pasture. It’s rather soothing. The horrible, icky, pit-in-my-stomach, threat of the little man with the calculator (see March 9th post) thing about the John Deere is the high pitched, stubborn grinding of the engine when it won’t turn over. This seems to happen at least once every mowing. Every time I hear it, I get queasy. I spend most of March through November on edge when Rob announces he’s off to go mow. Guess what he’s doing right now? Must go find some Tums…