Well, I took the mower out for a spin last night. I really needed to cut the grass and chew up the leaves. So, the mower got its last run on gasoline. It worked quite well for what I seemed to think of as a small mower (only 8 hp).
I'm now starting to track down the necessary other items for the conversion. Ben Nelson said he would donate a few things so I'm really psyched about that! There will be many pictures to come.