Anyone Know a Cheap Mechanic?

I know the old adage, 'If you buy cheap, you buy twice'. In my case though it's more like, 'If you buy cheap, it will keep breaking down!'
I am talking about my ride-on lawn tractor (mower). It was on sale over 4 years ago at Canadian Tire and still cost us about $1700. That will sound a lot to people with a small lawn who only need an electric mower from B & Q for £50 and it won't sound much to our North American friends who invest wisely in John Deere mowers that will last long enough to mow around their own gravestones.
Anyway, we have literally acres of grass to mow. We also have acres of oak, ash and willow trees. It's that time of year again where Mother Nature decides to challenge me to collect as many leaves as possible, pile them on to the smouldering bonfire and then overnight whips up a small hurricane in only our back yard so I have to start all over again the following day.

Yesterday I had only chugged for a couple of minutes in the sunshine, bagging up leaves as I went, when during a reverse manoeuvre, the engine cut out. I double checked that the cutting blade was not engaged and quickly put it in to neutral. It burst in to life again. I really couldn't understand what it was doing and can only assume a sensor for the cutting blade is faulty (if it has such a thing).
Anyway, it would not shift in to forward or reverse without the engine cutting out, so I gave up and pushed it towards the small hill heading toward home. I jumped on and managed to get almost to the shed. There, I removed the air filter and cleaned it, checked the oil and the fuel line.
Today, I am taking my portable battery boost to the shed to show the mower that I mean business. I will fiddle with the battery connections, spark plug and any other dangling wires I can see by the engine, say a quick desperate prayer and see if it will go.
I would love to have some knowledge of engines. I find it very satisfying to take things apart, mend them and put it all together again.
If all else fails, I will have to borrow my neighbour's pick up truck, load the mower on board and driving it to town for a diagnosis.
Meanwhile, the wind will keep blowing and the leaves will keep on falling until the grass is covered.
Forever the optimist, I won't even think about the latter option. Wish me luck!