Okay, it is John Deere and my tractor refused to start when I went out to mow the lawn.  It didn’t even try.  The battery didn’t have enough charge.  I put the battery charger on it.

That’s the charger on the left-front tire.  There’s an electrical problem in the glow-plug system.  They use them in the modern diesel engines so they will start in cold weather.  The circuitry is complicated and buried inside somewhere.  The guy from the dealership will pick it up this morning and take it in for repairs.  With all the hydraulics and fancy systems on this modern marvel, I don’t work on it.

It’s like my car.  I used to work on it.  Drive in and buy the parts.  Pray :pray: I had everything I needed.  (Of course I had double and triple checked, but sometimes . . . 😥 )  Then take it apart, work on it and put it back together.  Fortunately, I never completely embarrassed myself.

I did the mowing I wanted to do, but not with John.  Instead, I turned to Yan.  He’s been around for quite a while and with me for over a decade.

Like me, Yan is a high-mileage unit–and he is relatively simple. 😀   I’ve worked on him quite a bit.  I even bought the metric tools so that I could.  When he stopped working late last summer, I scoped out the problem, ordered parts and fixed him.

Great machine, right? :up:   Perhaps not.  He has a higher center-of-gravity, no power steering and the rear-mounted mower is difficult to maneuver around obstacles.  Also, in cold weather he doesn’t want to start. :down:

Despite all that, Yan came through for me and we got the lawn care job completed.  Not only that he’ll be here with me while John is in “the hospital.”

Do you know what John and Yan have in common?  They both have Yanmar diesel engines.

My neighbor once asked me why I chose to move out here in the country in retirement.  I responded, “I moved out here under the theory that it would cure me . . . or kill me.”  So far it’s working well.  My blood pressure is back under control. :up:   I’m saturated with feelings of peace and contentment.

I could have saved a lot of money on tractors and repairs if we’d have bought a house on a small lot in town.  I think we made the right choice.