Les tondeuses

Or "A Tale of Two Lawnmowers." Here they are. The new one (on the left) and the old one (on the right). As you can see, they're pretty much the same mower. The old one has a Briggs & Stratton engine and is bigger. The new one has a Honda engine and is a little smaller.

The two mowers, side by side.

The new one has also done its first tour of the yard, cutting pretty much three-fourths of it in two days. It's working great, and the grass catcher is easier to use that the old one. I'll take the grass catcher off for most of the summer now that the first cut is done. Both mowers have a mulching feature, although the old one lost some internal parts a few years back so it doesn't really mulch very well any more. The new one doesn't have those parts to fall off, but it still mulches, so there's been a design improvement.

I don't know what we'll do with the old machine. It still runs ok, but the auto-traction stopped working. The belt's ok and is turning, but the wheels stopped going. It might be reparable, but we decided that, with all of the old mower's other problems, it was best to get a new one.