Mowed Over

A couple of months before my wife and I bought the house we live in now, I went shopping for a riding mower.
I told Margie that I had something very specific in mind for mowing grass around the near-acre of property we were about to close on.  It was a tractor that I had grown up with almost exclusively since 1978. 
You may have heard of it, and you may have not.
Gravely.
For those of you who are not familiar with Gravely, they are, without a doubt, the best-built tractors money can buy.  In recent years, folks have been scouring places like eBay and Craigslist, either as collectors or those wanting a built-to-last tractor to restore to showroom-new glory or near it.
You won't find these at places like Home Depot or Lowe's.  They're solidly built, with transaxle-type transmissions, front tires that would dwarf the rear tires on the bigbox-store machines, and an average weight of three-quarters of a ton.
Rank them up there with the likes of New Holland, Kubota, and the higher-end John Deere machines.
My dad has a reputation of punishing equipment and vehicles.  If a Gravely can survive my dad and his 18 acres of rolling hills and trees, it surely can survive my yard, a postage stamp by comparison.
And as I found out recently, it's been able to survive my wife.
I make it a point to offer Margie the tractor and mow the grass if she so desires every now and then. 
I find a lot of freedom in mowing the grass with the tractor...especially when I cue up the tunes on my iPhone and enjoy some good music while doing a chore.  I call it "Gravely Therapy". 
And about a month ago, this session of therapy was especially brutal.
She came into the house as I was on the computer in our living room.
"I think I broke the tractor, please don't be mad".
As she explained what happened on the way to the garage, I thought it might not be so bad. 
Then she handed me one of the mower's three blades.  Something told me there was a bigger story to tell under the mower deck.
After pulling the deck off, I saw the shaft for the blade spindle was broken off at the bolt that held it in place. 
She was not familiar with the cleanout drain in our septic leach bed.  Some grass had grown over the cover, and the blade struck the terra cotta pipe going through the ground's surface.  At around 10 miles an hour, she didn't know what had happened until after the fact.
I managed to find the part on eBay, after getting a couple of outrageous quotes from some local dealers, who told me that since these parts are no longer produced, prices are going up.
Turned out the part didn't fit the mower, but my dad, knowing these machines inside and out, was able to make it fit rather effortlessly.
To him, that's what a hole saw is for.
"This was a freak thing," he said about the incident that resulted in its breakage.  "This couldn't happen again in a million years."
Margie's been reluctant to get back on it since I got it put back together earlier this week. 
Of course, I anticipate that changing later on.
When you've got an iPod or iPhone (actually any MP3 player) to help pass the time, it's hard to resist.

NEXT WEEK:  Grill me up, Scotty