WOODBURY – Vroom, vroom, it’s that time of year again: Tractors are starting to fill up the shop for the ag mechanics class.
The Nonnewaug upperclassman mechanics class rotates its attention each year. As juniors, they can bring in and work on garden tractors, and as seniors, they can bring in and work on farm tractors.
This year, the upperclassmen get the chance to bring in their farm tractors — and push out some others.
“There are a lot of tractors,” Nonnewaug junior Jakob Reynolds said. “There is no way we are fitting the school’s tractors with all of the tractors in the shop.”
With so many tractors in the shop, there are a variety of different brands of tractors.
“The more common tractors in there are John Deere and Farmalls,” Nonnewaug sophomore Noah Blood said. “There is also a weird pulling truck called a doodlebug.”
A doodlebug is a homemade tractor made during World War II due to the lack of commercially available tractors and farming equipment.
Nonnewaug senior Evan Grieger’s doodlebug is a truck frame with a motor and two transmissions to gear it down very low for truck pulling.
“My dad is the one who actually built it,” Grieger said. “It’s cool I get to bring it in and work on it while showing it off.”
“It is pretty cool being able to bring your tractor into school to be worked on,” Nonnewaug sophomore Josh Spataro said. “Having a class to work on possibly your own tractor and being able to learn how to work on them is very helpful.”
Ag mechanics teacher Andrew Zielinski believes there are many benefits to being able to work on your own tractors.
“It is definitely beneficial because students will have a higher investment in the outcome we have with the tractor,” Zielinski said. “If it is their own, it instills a certain sense of pride about it.”
