California Farming - our beloved Caterpillar & Memories

Ray 54 sparked this topic, I hope my continuation adds some interest. I wish I had pictures of some of these past times, maybe some of you can add yours? (most of us did not give a second thought to what we saw or the processes being used, pictures are just a glimpse of a fleeting moment, yet we fail to capture them.)

Ray and many others - Thank You for sharing your farming experiences. Farming practices have changed so drastically here in the Sacramento Valley, much has been or soon will be forgotten. The days of moldboard plows, the struggles to keep the vetch from plugging implements, digging the mud from between the rails. The bar with the hook on one end and a spade face on the other that was necessary to accompany the plow or disc harrow. Those troublesome cattails and tules (large stem bullrush) jamming things up along with the stubble from last season. Let us remember the necessary blocks bolted to the tracks of the "Cats" as they wallowed through the mud pulling a combine sometimes riding on sleds under their tires or wheels, threshing the rice that lay as flat as a pancake in the field. There are also the massive fields of dry land farming, side hills, sand, alkali, and the peat bogs of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta all having been worked with Caterpillar Tractors. As Ray said, this site is about much more than a tractor with a blade on the front of it. Caterpillar "tracklayers" along with those painted RED and those ORANGE ones, (some with other colors worked right along side the "top three" too) changed California farming. Farmer(s) got it done with what they had and did it with long hours in less than comfortable conditions. They improvised, cobbled together implements and often worked worn out machines. Those efforts kept many families fed and filled the grocers shelves. Today, many people only see a Marvin Plow or Marvin Landplane left in the corner buried in the weeds, the spike tooth harrows and carts, the massive checkers, and the wooden floats, most pulled with a CATERPILLAR. Only on occasion do we see a "cat" pulling a ditcher or disc in the fields, rubber has taken over. A few weeks ago, a fellow asked me - why are those levees so crooked in that rice field, aren't they suppose to be straight, they are close together in some places and wide in others? I explained contours and need to follow the highs and lows of the land to keep the water depths. Contours are largely forgotten, thanks to the LASER leveling systems. Yes, some of us are getting old - we remember, and we know how it got done - hard work, farmer fixes and mechanical aptitude. The machines now considered as "toys" or hobby machines were our lively hood, they worked as hard as the operators and when they broke down, we fixed them with what we had available or funds allowed. Many served long after they were considered obsolete and relics. We are losing the knowledge and information stored in those memories, this site helps keep those precious bits of information alive. - cts

Thank you CTS.
You have definetly been there.First thing you mentioned was the dreaded plow hook for unpluging a plow or scouring the moldboard.Not many today would know what that is.On some fields I got to know it well.A highlift jack was a huge help and was always on the tractor too.
Not all tools had hydraulics back then. Stockton Gang Plows was one.
And yes,the tractors we used and had to make a living with, are now someones toys or collections.Or worse yet, scrapped out.
Glad to see them preserved.
Always happy when I see an old Cat still making a living in the field.

Thank you for starting this thread CTS. No one in my family was into picture taking. I got a better camera with my wife's help and encouragement. But still very few picture. And some of those lost to ??? in life. A favorite was 4 Gleaner MH2 combine sitting in safflower stubble just out my back door,between 1980 and 85. Was a good safflower year. I worked summer harvest for a guy with 2 of the MH2's, his stepson also had 2 and that fall we had them all running together for 3000 acres or so. Spread all over hell and gone.

Getting into the digital age, had nice but simple camera. Take the card to WalMart maybe and the machine would spit out paper pictures. My daughter comes and says I am taking your camera for my trip. Here is my old one. No idea anymore of the why of it. Still never had as easy to use camera. I have a useless one sitting within reach right now, I think it take ok pictures. But it eats batteries , dead within a day or to use it or not. I have wildlife walking across my yard most days. If I want a fanned out turkey gobbler picture, no time to be putting batteries in. My wife has a nice camera that is within reach, but the card from it will not plug into this lap top. Has be down loaded into her lap top and emailed to mine. And that gives fossils like we are trouble at times.

In the 2005 to 16 years did a bit better, but those photos are in a almost dead lap top. So I have trouble sharing the few I do have.

Conclusions of 70 year

At some point no matter how hard you try new technology is much harder to get into the brain and every little change is a new road bloke.

Maybe just me. But if you were there and even more so if you picked it. A new piece of equipment is not thought of as old junk, not matter its age. My best in my mind example. As a teenager dad had 2 Ford F6 trucks to haul grain with, a 48 and 49 model. I thought they were real antiques. The mid 1970's trucks are still almost new in my mind. Or how can the mid 80's John Deere chore tractor with loader be so old that some parts are NLA. It just cannot be 40 years old.

Why is it I could import emoticons if I spent time, but I cannot remember how to handle pictures. Because crying emoji's fit my "new" 40 year old tractor. But showing a picture.............................................................

Ray54 -- I am in the same boat as you are - the new technology is much harder to grasp and it outpaces yesterday by leaps and bounds. What was the latest and greatest yesterday is like dust behind the disk in a strong headwind, GONE! In '68 I worked for a family friend, 3TD7 from before sun-up to near sundown then go to the labor camp for a meal and shower, before crashing to bed. No Umbrella, just a hot seat under the sun and I thought I had gone to heaven, he had an "old" fuel delivery bobtail, first time I did not have to hand pump fuel. I then worked for another neighbor, RD-4 in prune orchard, but it was in very sad shape, you could not turn closer than 4 rows or it would throw a track. Finally, he went to the barn and brought out another of his father-in-laws CATS - A Diesel Forty! A bit big for the prunes but that was a nice sounding machine, just needed a foot on the dash and both hands to pull the frictions. The later 3 cyl D6 was almost as bad, extensions on the friction levers. Looking back, those "old" Cats were so reliable, maybe at times the "pony" would insist it was not going to start but they seldom failed us. Now- all computerized, no clutch lever, no steering friction levers, all joysticks alongside the seat and that GPS stuff - I will freely admit, I do not understand it and do not want to learn it! - cts

Hi, Ray54 and cts.

I have gotten to learn a LOTTTA the 'new' technology - had to learn it to be able to keep on working/having fun playing with other people's 'toys'. The new machines ARE a delight to operate and. seriously' don't take a lot of getting used to. That said though, I do still LURRRRVE to get on an older machine and know that it all JUST the machine and me.

I started on a Cat 22,, then a 2T D4, then a 3T D7, an A-C HD16A and then got onto Cat Powershift machines - I thought I was in Heaven - and I stayed there for a LONG time - with a few 'deviations' onto other machines - ALL good fun.

Just my 0.02.

Here is a picture. Discing rice stubble back on Halloween night in 2015. Does this count or is it too new?

Hi, Durango1917.

I can't speak for everybody here but, even though the name of the club starts off with, "Antique", I have NO objection to any Cat photos, all the way up to and including the 'antique' GC models released in the last couple of years.

Thank you.

Just my 0.02.

Oh boy. Durango has triggered my memories of slaving away on a very large rice farm in the early 90's. The bosses had me finish disking for 45 days with a 24'? Towner disk. Silly me said disking is kind of old, what else can I do? The one time I learned to be quiet...He hooked me up to a Marvin Triplane and I made a lot more dust and covered less acres 16 feet at a time. My machine? Caterpillar D7E high horse with not even an umbrella (I got mad and brought my own with the Peterson logo on it). They muttered how I was the only person that could make that thing operate in 5th gear pulling that big disk or plane with it. Of course, after I put in 12 hours with the CAT, they "allowed" me to drive a cabbed wheel tractor because it had more lights for night work. Those were the days! (and nights!) 16 hours for me was normal. The D7E I drove had an appetite for fuel; if it did not require so much fueling, they probably would have left me on it for the full 16.

Any photos are welcomed as far as I am concerned. Keep them coming please. Many of our viewers have no idea what it takes to make a crop. I wished that I had a way to take photos prior to owning an iphone.

Thanks to all that are contributing - IMO (in my opinion) if it is CATERPILLAR - it is part of this environment. KEEP 'EM COMING! Antique is a term that probably fits many of us, or are we just mellowed to perfection? I need to make more efforts, capture what is left of the field work. I pulled a float with 2UD8 after school working in the rice fields preparing the seed bed. After floating the "check" I was put on a 9GD7 pulling a Marvin Tri-plane. When I finished that "check", I crossed the levee with that tri-plane in tow, the boss about had a heart attack. How did you cross without raising the bucket, you could have destroyed my tri-plane! It just took some thinking and proper maneuvers, I put the front wheel on the levee, then pulled hard sharp turn causing the rear to swing around raising the bucket. NO scrape marks on the crossing. Of course, I had learned a lot on our small walnut orchard pulling equipment with the Ford Tractor, no hydraulics and if not careful, you could easily get high centered and then the real work began! Lessons learned the "hard way" last a lifetime! Oh for those memories, in those years, if you were willing to work and took care of the equipment, you could find someone that put you to work after school, weekends, and I could hardly wait to leave school and get on the tractor. (JM - how would you like to go back to those good times? I don't think we had near the stress levels we all endure today.) -- cts

Most of my life I only thought of Caterpillars as dozers, building roads and pulling logs out of the woods. Pushing dirt from here to there, and fighting fires. It wasn’t until maybe 10 years ago that I learned they were rooted in the agricultural industry, designed for pulling without getting stuck so easily. I love learning about the agriculture industry and the history of Cats. Thanks to all and keep it coming!