Since most blades turn in a direction that will cause the bolt holding the blade to tighten when the blade is spinning, you only need to tighten the bolt until it is snug. I have always been able to get the bolt loose with a 3/8" socket and 3/8" a bar. The only thing that over tightening the blade bolt will do is create a lot of magic words and some skinned knuckles Contrary to what many people do, I use a standard blade and blow the grass into the uncut areas. By the time you are finished there are no clumps on the yard except from the last passes across the lawn. I take care of them using the mower to get blow the clumps into the yard. I find this is just as effective as mulching I have a riding lawn mower. After I am done mowing I blow the grass from the deck, muffler, and other parts of the tractor. I then blow the garage, porches, driveway, and side walks clean. As I am doing this I blow any remaining clumps or grass into the yard.d

Perhaps you should sit down and think about your plans for this property. Here are some questions to ask yourself. 1. Will we be doing all this work in one year or will this be stretched out over several years? 2. Once all of the landscaping work has been completed, what tasks do we expect our tractor to perform every year from that point on? 3. What sort of access do we currently have to our backyard and will that change as the landscaping work comes to completion? If you hired a Pro landscaper to perform this work, he would stake out the various areas, shoot grades and then bring in either a small, tracked excavator or skid-steer loader to quickly take care of all the initial dirt work. Any excess fill would be removed from the property immediately and trucked away unless it could be placed in a low spot or used to create a berm. Once the heavy work was done, then he'd use the same skid steer to bring in top soil, stone and any other materials that were labour intensive to move by hand. Hopefully, he could place those materials immmediately but if they were placed next to the area in a pile, then shifting them with a shovel and wheelbarrow would be simple. All of this work could likely be carried out with a single weekend rental of a medium size skid-steer loader and there would be no need to agonize over what tractor with a Johnny Bucket would be best. If your husband does not feel confident that he could operate a skid-steer proficiently, then hire someone. An experienced operator can dig out, carry away spoil and shift tons of new material so fast you'll be amazed. Even if this process was to drag into a second year, all of the above could be done this year. Piles of dirt and stone don't go bad. At least all of that stuff would be sitting right there waiting for the weather to break and your ambition to return. Pretty much any entry-level Lawn Tractor (LT) is adequate to cut the grass, blow some snow and pull a garden cart around a property that is 2 acres in size or less. If you foresee doing more than those tasks once the landscaping has been completed, then perhaps a true garden tractor is what you need, but I don't think that it should be predicated on these short-term projects.

I did not think of the online link, I guess we are lucky, in that Agri Supply is about 20 mile from our home. We do a lot of shopping in Garner so we pass it on the way in and going home. If you ever are in the area it is a destination. As I said the belt display is about 50' long and 4 racks high. It you need a 4" wrench they have it. Tires for just about any thing that moves. Supplies for your chicken, rabbits, etc. Anything you need for your yard or farm. Plus they have knowledgeable and friendly sales people.

Thank you all for all the comments here. I have a nest though while no eggs (3 robins fledged successfully ages ago) the nest remains the parents home. Issue is it's under my bedroom window in ivy which due to leaving them so long, its now completely covered the window and onto the roof. I'm going to build a box as shown by rober49 (thank you) and place it under the eaves for protection. The nest is huge and looks very solid (i.e., been in use a very long time). The robins eat from my hand (as did their babies) so trusting they will understand, forgive and continue using their relocated nest. The UK robins are tiny compared to those in the US. Ours are a fair bit smaller than a tennis ball. I think your's are on steroids. Thank you all ... feeling much happier about this.