Nemo,
1. glad you are okay.
2. Is that a river ? Looks a little swollen......
3. That dead tree wo;t likely be the last one to fall over as there is nothing left of rotting root system to kep them upright.
4. Sorry about the tractor. That sucks. Best wishes to you finding a replacement and with your mechanical abilities I have no doubt you will have an even better lawn tractor in the end.
If an engine is losing oil and it ain't obvious, generally there are internal seals that oilis bypassyng and getting through and burning internally. This causes all kinds of bad things inside small engines like those on lawn tractors. I suspect you know this by now...
Glad it all got under control by the local one man fire department.......
Nice pics though...