yard work isn't fun.....

Actually it wasn't bad working in the garden over the weekend even if I did get a little suntan/burn on the back of my neck. I really have the farmers tan now - but I think that is mainly because the rest of me is so white, anything non-white sticks out quite drastically :-) On Saturday we borrowed Kristen's parents mower and I spent about 100 minutes mowing the back and front garden whilst Kristen and Mom weeded and raked up the fallen leaves that were left in the flower beds. By the end of the day we had sore backs and 10 lawn bags and 2 bins full of grass cuttings and leaves for the green disposal lorry to come and take away today. I've been trying to decide on whether to get a ride on mower (called lawn tractors nowadays) or whether to get a self propelled walk behind mower. The cost difference is pretty big but the ride-on would be much more comfortable but starting at $900 its a big outlay. The other thing is that there doesn't seem to be anywhere you can actually try a tractor (although John Deere's are all over the neighbourhood but I can't afford one of those). I was favouring the craftsman mowers from sears until we found out that their cheapest one doesn't have a gear system that you can change whilst driving - apparently you have to come to a stop to change gears (according to the sales person) but that strikes me as odd as you always move away from a standstill in first, so coming to a stop doesn't make sense.
A google search for reconditioned, second hand or used mowers does not come up with anything in the vicinity and I am not aware of any mower shops (unlke Haslington mowers or Congleton Mowers back home in England). Any locals got any ideas or want to let me borrow their tractor for a test drive (I'll even cut YOUR garden if I can try out your mower!)