The Wonderment of the John Deere Tractor

I had to mow the lawn yesterday. The drought this past summer has played havoc with our yard and we’ve had to till up a big patch to reseed. But the rest of the grass (and weeds, let’s be honest here) were in need of a trim.

So Mark thought today’s blog should be about, and I am quoting here, “the Wonderment of the John Deer Tractor.” (And I know he said that with a Capital “W”.) What is it with men and their toys? Other than the topic, he didn’t elaborate, and I am left to my own devices to figure out what, exactly, that ‘Wonderment’ is.

There IS the sound… a funny whining sound when you start it, and a distinctive motor noise when running. A neighbor down the street was mowing her lawn when I started – and she doesn’t have a John Deere – so I could tell that the sound was different. Could that be it? Frankly, it is noisy and sounds like a big lawnmower to me. Not really something I can wax eloquent about.

It does have a wide deck and can cover a lot of territory in a short period of time; corners pretty nicely (although it kicks up quite a bit of dust just now;) can get up even our steep hill without too much trouble. But surely those advantages are offset by the lack of suspension that bounces me all-but-off-the-seat in our poorly graded yard.

Ah – the neighbor that was mowing before I started? She was still mowing long after I was done. Maybe that’s ‘Wonderment.’ Mine’s faster? Surely not.

I suspect that “mine’s bigger” could have something to do with Wonderment-with-a-capital-W. Years ago, when we bought our house in Oregon, we needed a mower and went looking at Home Depot. They had ‘Cadet Cub’ and ‘Lawn Boy’ and several other brands, but none would do but ‘Yard Man’, once he saw that. No sissy lawn ‘boys’ for Mark. If there was a ‘Yard Man’, it was to be his. So this time, nothing but John Deere would do – and a big one at that.

But, really… “Wonderment?” Sorry, it just doesn’t come to me.