The Grand Adventures of Glo and the Riding Lawn Mower

This has been a big week for Glo.  Seriously, I'm so thankful for the capabilities (camera, etc.) to capture all of the great moments.  Here's a recap:

Back in November, a neighbor and good friend of ours had his lawn tractor die in the middle of his yard.  Somehow John found out about it and asked him what he was going to do with it.  Glen then told John that if John could get it out of his yard, he could have it--Glen was buying a new one.  Being the man who can't pass up something free, John called his other friend, Ed, who is a professor at Penn State but who in his spare time loves to fix anything that moves.  Turns out, the tractor just needed a new belt.  John brought the tractor home and promised Glo that he would teach her to ride it.  This, of course, is John's sneaky way to teach the kids how to help me with mowing the lawn :-)

Glo has taken full possession of that lawn tractor, and when she comes home from school, it's all she can do to throw on her boots and snow pants and go out for a ride.  And ride it she does.  She'll drive all over for a good 30 minutes.  I'm not sure how she keeps from freezing--maybe it's the adrenaline rush of riding the tractor at full speed up and down our hilly property.  She even knows how to work the clutch and park it back in the garage at the end of the day.

This is a video of her on her first day on the tractor.  She learned how to restart it (again, using the clutch), and how to get it out of the snow when it is stuck.  After this video, she actually went down to the mailbox and got the mail.  She told me later that she ran into a snowbank, but using her "reverse" skills, got it out on her own.  Woot!

I'm not sure how much actual mowing will ever get done, but John's glad that he found the  free tractor that works just as well and provides just as much entertainment as a $4,000 4x4 (a huge pastime here in central PA).