WOODBURY — Continuing the 30-year-old tradition of Drive Your Tractor to School Day at Nonnewaug High School, tractors began to roll into the parking lot as the sunrise began to take over the early morning May 25. 

Students were asked to arrive at school by 6:30 so traffic wouldn’t be an issue. Given they had to be here this early, students decided to make eggs, sausage and bacon for breakfast and have drinks in the morning with a Blackstone grill.

This year’s turnout was one of the biggest in the event’s history with 41 tractors.

“It is always fun to see the different tractors and equipment that show up,” said Andrew Zielinski, Nonnewaug ag mechanics teacher.

Ranging from row crop tractors to skidder machines, there was a variety of different tractors at the school — “from tractors that look like they have just been pulled out of the woods to payloaders and skidders,” said Zielinski. 

Most of what the students have learned by taking the mechanics course at Nonnewaug is what has helped them work on their pieces of equipment. During the day, sophomores through seniors could dyno (dynamometer) their tractors. That means hooking the PTO (power takeoff) to the machine and see what power it is putting out at the PTO-rated speed. 

“My tractor made around 65 horsepower on the dyno,” says Alex Uscilla, a junior taking mechanics. “It was fun to drive the tractor instead of my truck for a day.”

Each class throughout the day that was taking mechanics was allowed to hook up their tractors. 

Towards the end of the day, Zielinski had all of the students that took a tractor line up in the back parking lot to be able to leave in a smooth operation. Buses were called to leave first, followed by parent pick-ups and then finally the tractors left. 

“I’m looking forward to driving something bigger next year,” says Uscilla.