and it was primarily for picking up leaves, not mowing the grass.

It was also thoroughly redneck engineered. It was a welded-up steel frame with a 60-in mower deck, its own B&S engine, and a big-arse steel centrifugal blower to suck the chopped grass and leaves up and blow them into about a 125 cu ft galvenized steel box.


Looks like just a 60-in mower deck is pretty expensive these days (over $1000 by itself).

I honestly think the best solution without breaking the bank is to hire a lawn service. They will be able to roll in there with $20,000 worth of equipment and make short work of it. I'm just not picturing any other solutions that aren't going to be expensive or possibly dangerous.