Had to be a brush hog mowing high grass/weeds. Driver would not have seen her if it was a large tractor.
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Of course, it was a sizeable cutting rig. The author makes it seem as if it was a riding lawnmower. I have a John Deere cutter and a 50-hp tractor that will destroy three-inch trees in my path. Since the property was being sold, the likely explanation is that the overgrown land was being cleared for sale. It had to have been an awful traumatizing event for the tractor operator. I chopped up a nesting wild turkey a while back and I can remember it to this day.
I was cutting some very tall grass and ran over a lot of rabbit nests and only saw them on my second pass. It was disturbing to me and I hunt.