I dug into some old files to find these - I do not have many of my days on the farms and same with my "snowfighting days" - hindsight is wonderful, foresight is missing.
Many of the methods and equipment are long gone - what I thought was never to leave is now just blurr.   The ever present Caterpillar Tracklayer pulling his load in the fields  - gone too.

These photos were taken on a beautiful day - little wind -- think about that "poor soul" on the bankout wagon -  that terrible chaff and dust always enveloping him!  No amount of cornstarch would stop that irritating itch!  (I was always told that OATS were way worse but never experienced them)
(been there - done that - glad it is long ago in the rearview mirror!)

JM mentioned the "greenhouse" you can visualize why he called it such!  AC was still pretty much in it's infancy as these were being built.

This rice is all "standing" making it much easier for the operators, when it is "flat as a pancake" to the ground, it was and still is a tough job to pickup and put through the machine.
Another note about these photos - not much mud - not even sticking to the bankout tires or the tracks on the combines.   Near as perfect as you could ask for from the aspect of the people working the field.  

CAT power and CAT tracks - ever present in the rice country of N. California so many years ago now.  

CTS

another Hardy
Note the PVC pipes to "lift" any low wires over the machine.
 

Some Hardy’s get scrapped for the goodies. I can get almost enough rails and rollers from one machine to do up 2 standard 4 roller D4s.
Same thing with John Deere rice machines; the UC is mainly D2, and one can glean a lot off of an old 95RC or 105RC.

JM - do not forget the JD 55 - it too was D2
It has been a long time since I saw those old JD's -- there were some down below Grimes that were full track 105's.
Yes - the same owner that had those two D-5s.
I do not know what became of any of those machines.
cts

Any photos of an old Hahn-Merton? Nope, I am not that OLD CTS, but I remember old school guys mention them. While we are on the subject, any Z-580s built by SWECO? aka Ziegenmeyer...Those were more modern, 3208 Cat engines; I don't know what components for the UC were used.
I still want to find one of those upside down bowl shades with the blower fan. Those things worked great according to some oldsters I knew. Itchy chaff? Sweet rice can actually give a person lung damage from the chaff and dust...generous slatherings of cornstarch helped your skin, I think some guys had to wear a respirator, as they were so sensitive to the dust.

JM - unless I am mistaken - this should be your Hahn-Merton
Last I saw it , on 99W just at South end of Maxwell.
Correct me if I am off base.

There were several places that custom built combines, some by local farmers without naming the machine -  
The Case Stationary was often used as a base to work from, adding the carriage and header, etc.

I barely remember JD 36 in the rice fields - then came the push rigs - Massey Harris one of the first.

I do remember seeing those upside down bowls over the operator, anything to try to keep that dust and chaff away!

CTS

Tell me more about the corn starch. I have had the privilegie to harvest a bit of oats, much more itch than barley, safflower or wheat. The other crops I have harvested.


From the experience of watching my father, a JD 36 did not like green matter in the crop. So from looking at rice harvest pictures rice straw always looks green. I would think combining rice with JD 36 would be a exercise in frustration. Having run a Massey Harris I can see them getting it done but oh so slowly.

Oh the days when a shade over head was a treat. I think the first MH I ran may of run had "the bowl on top" without any power to the fan. But was safflower more in the fall not so hot anymore. The first cab with air thought I had died and gone to haven. Until the air stopped working then back to hell.

Ray: When we grew wheat, we rented a pair of 915 IH rice combines to harvest with. Nice comfy cabs and AC worked good. The Hardy? The AC would freeze up sometimes, and it was so miserable you couldn’t operate with the doors open, so I stripped down to my underwear more than once; to top things off I had to improvise an old cardboard box to deflect the cold water dripping down on my head and back. My bosses wondered what the hell I was doing, but afraid to get close enough to ask. When they requested I operate a brand new 9600 JD, I didn’t want to, as it was loaded with too many modern conveniences and plush compared to the glass house I’d been suffering in. JM

Ray -
Cornstarch is a very smooth fine powder as we all know --- it helped fill the pores of your skin, filled the fibers of your clothes and "helped" to reduce the irritation. Everyone I worked with had cornstarch on the machines. A liberal handfull around your neck, ears, hair, cuffs of your shirt/jacket and sometimes even your belt line never hurt!

Yes all the joy of having more parts like air conditioning so more things to break. I worked for tough guy that bought a cab without air for his first cabed combine. That lasted maybe a week and he bought air for it. So when I worked for him if the air was no working it was considered broke and you called the mechanic to fix it. Then you got to fix fence or some other job that was kept until you "had time".

I latter ran a JD 95 that had 2 doors so it was possible to run without air and not die of heat stroke, but still not good.

I had a swather that had a swamp cooler that kind of worked. But I shed no tears when a you joint on the knife drive went and took out the front glass. Never missed it, or the rain on my head.


I guess all the old guys here where so tough they didn't need the corn starch. I have never heard of it until now. Besides the itch, they told all my generation how easy we had it not loading trucks with wheat sacks weighting 140 lbs. I have loaded enough 130 lb hay bales, I have no idea how one guy could get 140 wheat sack on the third ter of a flat bed truck.