Grass Cutting 101

Last summer I rarely managed to cut the grass. Mostly it was because it rained so much that the grass was always wet, but when I did find an opportunity to cut it, the lawn mowers failed.
I had bought a push mower (4 stroke and very environmentally friendly) because the tractor that came with the house is ancient and probably creates more pollution than a hundred cars. I also thought that a push mower would be great cardio for me (who had been accustomed to walking a lot in the city and now had to drive everywhere). I was diligent about mulching, so had the mulching plugs in place. I rarely got a hundred meters before the push mower would conk out - plugged and exhausted from a lack of oxygen caused by the abundance of long, wet, matted grass clippings.
The tractor was more reliable but also struggled in the backyard where the leachbed is. I can't even count the number of times I had to push the tractor back into the drive shed because it had been crippled and suffocated out in the deep green grass.
I spent the winter trying to figure out what I was going to do about the lawn. Not only was the grass going to keep growing, but there was going to be a significant amount of matting at ground level - last years' decay. Max suggested burning it all (healthy for the soil but probably a bit stressful for the nextdoor farmer) and reseeding with clover.
Early on in the spring I overseeded with clover again ( I started this last year, we'd like to do away with grass altogether) and yesterday I decided to give mowing another try.
This time I used the push mower with the clippings bag. I had decided to use the bag because I wanted to save the clippings for the compost pile (and to relieve a bit of stress on the already matted lawn). BOY WAS I STUPID LAST YEAR. Without having to mulch and spray long wet grass, the mower operated tremendously!! I had to dump the grass clippings bag once a row (and so the process took a very long time) but the mower managed to mow down 8" grass and only sputter to a halt once. It seems so obvious, but last summer I was unprepared for the success of our lawn (compounded by the rain) and since I had only owned a manual mower in the city (with our 20' x 40' back yard) I didn't know how to properly operate a gas-powered one.
It took me about 5 hours to cut the front and side part of the property, and another hour just to mow between the house and the septic tank (where we had a lush and lovely mop of foot long grass). Today I'm going to try and finish off the back yard.
I'm so grateful to be able to use my heart- and earth-friendly push mower, and even more grateful that my lawn-mowing addicted neighbours (who have at least 3 acres of manicured lawn) won't show up offering to mow our grass finally.