I don't have any firsthand experience, but you might benefit from the experience of one of my neighbors, also with a 1-acre lot. He decided to by a Timecutter Z to replace his old Yazoo RER. I saw it the day he got it, in the back of his pickup truck. Next time I saw him mowing, however, he was back on the old Yazoo. When I asked him about it, he said he got frustrated with the ZTR and took it back because he had a hard time maneuvering in part of his yard and got stuck. If your yard is free of obstructions, this might not be an issue for you, however. Don't know why, but in our neighborhood of 37 houses on acre lots out in the country, there are no ZTRs. John

tjicken~ I had no clue which one you were talking about and had to go look it up. LOL! (tags have been lost over the years.) Wow! It will be great if it ever blooms. He's had it about 5 yrs now with no blooms. He liked it because of the color and shape of the needles. Thank you for sharing the name. Oh and I found today the comon name is Arizona hedge hog..lol! I'm in Tucson, Arizona. :) puglvr1 and emerald.. Thank you! Yes he is proud and has to take care of his plants on his own when he asks me to buy them! He grows sunflowers and a few others types in the summer, and helps with all garden chores in general. It started when he was 3. What little boy doesn't like dirt! LOL! But I think mom got more excited over finding worms than he did. LOL! And now that he's older, I have to keep them a secret or his dad and him would be heading to the lake. :) Emerald~ thank you! I tried that and the glue just didnt want to give... it ended up taking all the needles with it. It was on pretty thick. The plant is o.k. though. I do have one small fish hook type that blooms each summer. Just showed up in my yard next to my barrel cactus.

Sorry to be late; didn't check in for a couple of days. Yes, the Panasonic makes extremely sharp photos, thanks, in part to the Leica lens. It offers two types of image stabilization, both optical (the best kind): 1. continuous and 2. at the moment of shutter let-off. Of my six non-DSLR cameras, the Panasonic DMC-TZ5 is the best one. Like most digital cameras, it has a wide range of shooting modes, most of which I never use. But they're there. It also shoots video, but I've never done it; I do know that it lets you zoom during video filming - I understand that many cameras will not zoom during video. As I said, the flash range is limited and the camera DOES NOT have an optical viewfinder. One other drawback - which you can overcome by careful "holding" - is that the flash is located below the shutter button, and it's natural to put your middle finger over it. You've got to get used to that. Panasonic has packed so much into this little camera that I don't think there was any other place to put the flash. And by-the-way, like most small digitals, it does not have a hot shoe for using an auxillary flash. If you'd like further info from me, go to My Page and email me directly. Javert

I just went outside and made a little video, for some reason I was surprised that it had sound. LOL! You can hear the birds chirping! Cool. The pictures are ok, some were blurry. I haven't figured out how to use the zoom function yet. Test picture: I can see more detail in the up close pictures with this camera than my Kodak...oh, and yes, I meant Canon not Kodak, which is my old camera. It took videos too but I never used it for that. I gave that camera to Alex today. Thanks Iowagirl, I'll go back and print a copy of it to take with me...otherwise I will be lost when I actually go to do it. Thanks Glenda, I'll go check it out.