Tractor Maintenance - Clothing Optional

Alright, I already mentioned that the donkey I bought the lawn tractor from was allergic to maintenance. At least he was honest enough to admit that he never had the tractor serviced - I'll give him that much. Since the weather was a little crappy today and I'm nursing a sore shoulder (hopefully I won't need anything other than rest for it) I decided to do some light maintenance on the tractor myself. Oil was changed, new plug and new air filter installed, etc. I jacked the ass-end up to get the mowing deck high enough to get at the blades, figuring that they probably needed to be sharpened. It cut well, but I figured that 7 or 8 years between sharpenings was a little longer than recommended. After removing the blades, I began to wonder if the previous owner was mowing grass or gravel. Seriously - those were the worst looking blades I've ever seen! Check out the evidence when compared to a new blade:






The blades were in bad enough shape that I figured it wasn't even worth trying to sharpen them, as I'd have to take off so much material. Plus, these blades are designed for use with a bagging system, which I don't have and don't want to get.