Cleaning Up Substantial Yard Debris

[dirttoys]

That bucket is phenomenal

I'll look into it come spring. Going to clear brush and centralize the trash now.

As for the house, we've got trusted high quality contractors (family actually) who are doing such a phenomenal job. There property is part of an estate so it's funding the renovations. It's been a real joy seeing what was once a jewel of a house become one again and being able to renovate with a single cohesive design. Lots of dark blue with white trim, enameled cast iron sink, clawfoot tub and all the fixtures are solid brass. The idea is that we want to design something more permanent so the stuff like the brass will still look great in fifty years and so will the cast iron if taken care of. We've also been salvaging a lot of original hardware, solid oak doors with ornate hinges and porcelain doorknobs just sitting in the bramble behind the half collapsed barn. I spent two weeks scraping wallpaper so we could keep the plaster and lath in a particular room. Here's a pic of some restored hardware that was unrecognizable and covered in paint and a picture of our kitchen sink still in progress.

Looks great, neat project I am VERY glad you have help, that stuff is real work. If you do it by yourself it would be easy to loose sight of the end.

Best,

ed

 

[Bearsixty7]

Contact your Department of Environmental Conservation and ask them to press charges to cover the costs of the cleanup. 30 years of accumulation=30 years of after-care and guardianship. We need to do the same with the lead leaching into the ground from shooting ranges . Each one should be required to carry a 6 $$$$$$ figure bond for the eventual cleanup of poisoned groundwater and submit to, and pay for, groundwater monitoring wells. In NY, the DEC is installing monitoring wells at all dumps and landfills. It sucks seeing waterbirds dying from ingesting lead shot and seeing eagles die from eating the waterbirds.

Steel/Nontoxic shot has been required for waterfowl hunting since 1992. And more states are mandating its use in select areas for upland bird hunting–even for doves on some state lands. So there should be little to no waterfowl dying from ingesting leadshot.

Most shooting ranges have a company that comes in and reclaims a lot of the lead for reuse so no need for them to carry an unnecessary bond that only costs users more and also causes less ranges to be built. It's already getting harder and harder for ranges to stay open due to population growth and increasingly restrictive and expensive regulations.

You do know that lead is a natural element, it is in the earths crust in a lot of places. Who do you want to charge or make carry a bond so that all of that doesn't cause water contamination?

 

[Hay Dude]

Boy did this topic slide into the abyss. Lol
Renting a 15” diesel chipper in next 2 weeks to chip a 250’ long x 50’ wide x 10’ high pile of years of accumulated brush.
Planning on chipping what can be chipped and condensing the older rotted material into a pile to be scattered-spread out in woods.

Burning not permitted by this customer. They will be burning some money to pay for this, though

 

[LittleBittyBigJohn]

I call my piles “rabbithabitat”. Pretty sure the possum,raccoons, skunks, etc thank me as well.

I have an internal fight with this a lot. I have a big soft spot for all of God's creatures so I appreciate this mentality. But, I also like things to look nice. Usually looking nice takes priority at my house. I had a tough time cleaning up the overgrowth around my pond since the frogs like it so much. So I left 1 bank overgrown for them...

 

[dirttoys]

LOL that is funny, don't care who you are. Saving Lennon would be powerful motivation, probably going to rethink my position on guns

And, you gave me a sudden, nearly overwhelming urge to start drinking Busch!!

 

[DieselBound]

If you look closely at my avatar you'll see something that did a MASSIVE amount of work- old car/truck hoods. Use the tractor bucket loader to push stuff on (lots of things can be rolled-on, and then off). Drag wherever. Here's a bunch of crap that I unearthed from my property (most was from only a few locations, fortunately):

Part of my property (far from the immediate homestead, thank goodness) had been used as a junkyard/wrecking yard (short term) overflow: people got most out (order from the County) , but there was still ample crap left. I think I ended up with 34 tires/rims. Lots of metal that I had someone else haul off: when I was doing this work I did not yet have a truck. Just after carting all that off, and feeling really good about doing so, I ran across a piece of plastic sticking up out the ground in an area that I wasn't aware of any garbage having been- pricked it out to then unearth a freaking swing set (there was vacuum cleaner and a bunch of other crap in that hole as well). An older friend of mine (lives in a more urban environment) told me that a friend of his would tell him to bring out his garbage to dump at his [his friend's] place.

My brush hog was key in exposing stuff through all the brush: battled a lot of discovered metal, slicing through the front end of some old International pickup and slicing several rims, but the brush hog survived it all (and it was a "light duty" unit!).

One area is my "hobby" area. I've been sifting through the dirt (off and on) for a good ten years: lately I might get a couple of hours work in a given year- area has been shrinking and I just kind of let stuff settle and the debris to rise. This is the garbage area that got all the household waste, lots of glass, screws and nails. I'll probably curse myself, but I've only gotten one flat in all the work that I've done (at it was early on, and, thankfully, just a front tire on my small tractor- I watch very carefully about getting near anything with my Kioti and its loaded rears!).

Not exactly what I'd planned to do with my life, but looking at what I now have I can say that I've turned everything from a

 

[PlasterProspector]

If you look closely at my avatar you'll see something that did a MASSIVE amount of work- old car/truck hoods. Use the tractor bucket loader to push stuff on (lots of things can be rolled-on, and then off). Drag wherever. Here's a bunch of crap that I unearthed from my property (most was from only a few locations, fortunately):

View attachment 729152

Part of my property (far from the immediate homestead, thank goodness) had been used as a junkyard/wrecking yard (short term) overflow: people got most out (order from the County) , but there was still ample crap left. I think I ended up with 34 tires/rims. Lots of metal that I had someone else haul off: when I was doing this work I did not yet have a truck. Just after carting all that off, and feeling really good about doing so, I ran across a piece of plastic sticking up out the ground in an area that I wasn't aware of any garbage having been- pricked it out to then unearth a freaking swing set (there was vacuum cleaner and a bunch of other crap in that hole as well). An older friend of mine (lives in a more urban environment) told me that a friend of his would tell him to bring out his garbage to dump at his [his friend's] place.

My brush hog was key in exposing stuff through all the brush: battled a lot of discovered metal, slicing through the front end of some old International pickup and slicing several rims, but the brush hog survived it all (and it was a "light duty" unit!).

One area is my "hobby" area. I've been sifting through the dirt (off and on) for a good ten years: lately I might get a couple of hours work in a given year- area has been shrinking and I just kind of let stuff settle and the debris to rise. This is the garbage area that got all the household waste, lots of glass, screws and nails. I'll probably curse myself, but I've only gotten one flat in all the work that I've done (at it was early on, and, thankfully, just a front tire on my small tractor- I watch very carefully about getting near anything with my Kioti and its loaded rears!).

Not exactly what I'd planned to do with my life, but looking at what I now have I can say that I've turned everything from a

Haha, I think you got me beat.

 

[STAYSAFE]

Those are VERY cool but I think my wife would lose it if I started trying to blowtorch the garbage.

Everybody recommends the dig and bury method. Considering it's old agricultural land and a multigenerational family property, that and I'm a bit crunch, I'd rather just pick it all up. Small stuff can be raked into the top soil season after season but that'd be the extent of it. Those run flats are real cool though. How well do they perform?

There is no such thing as “AWAY” in the clichè “throw it AWAY”. One can throw it over “here” or throw it over “there”, but you can’t throw it “AWAY”. Even Space Junk isn’t “away”. It’s just way out “there”.

 

[STAYSAFE]

Please spell “scrappers” like this. Please don’t spell it like this: “scrapers”. One is a person, after all. ScrappersLivesMatter. The other describes friction.

 

[rademamj1]

Please spell “scrappers” like this. Please don’t spell it like this: “scrapers”. One is a person, after all. ScrappersLivesMatter. The other describes friction.

I must admit, despite a minor misspelling, I fully understood the meaning and contention of the post.

 

[JDZ735M]

I must admit, despite a minor misspelling, I fully understood the meaning and contention of the post.

I'm sure everyone did.

 

[Gem99ultra]

Sad situation you have there, with the multi-year's worth of trash. Sadly, even if you do get it all removed that you can see, you'll find that more just keeps coming to the top over the coming years. BT-DT.

The property I now live on had many year's worth of household garbage dumped into the woods out back. I've been working a little at a time for 10 years cleaning those piles up. Believe me, there's no end to it. Fortunately, it's not nearly as bad as what I see in the pictures you've posted.

I had an opportunity to buy the 5 acres next door for a song and a dance, but being smarter after working to clean up my 13 acres, I passed on it. It had 4.5 acres of it that 5 that had been used as a dump for many years past. It wouldn't be worthwhile to me and any price.

I don't want to discourage you from attempting to clean up your place. That, you have to do in my humble opinion. But to "clean up" a large area, either for yourself or someone else... and endless task is ahead.

 

[PlasterProspector]

Sad situation you have there, with the multi-year's worth of trash. Sadly, even if you do get it all removed that you can see, you'll find that more just keeps coming to the top over the coming years. BT-DT.

The property I now live on had many year's worth of household garbage dumped into the woods out back. I've been working a little at a time for 10 years cleaning those piles up. Believe me, there's no end to it. Fortunately, it's not nearly as bad as what I see in the pictures you've posted.

I had an opportunity to buy the 5 acres next door for a song and a dance, but being smarter after working to clean up my 13 acres, I passed on it. It had 4.5 acres of it that 5 that had been used as a dump for many years past. It wouldn't be worthwhile to me and any price.

I don't want to discourage you from attempting to clean up your place. That, you have to do in my humble opinion. But to "clean up" a large area, either for yourself or someone else... and endless task is ahead.

Well, after more exploration with all the leaves bare it does seem at least like the junk is mostly contained to the first five acres or so. After that it's sporadic, the odd pile of beer bottles in the woods or old hunting stand. Seems the junkers were too lazy to walk their junk out into the fields. Sadly, my mile or so of hedgerows all have barbwire buried into the trunks.

I'm trying to clear new growth to get at the garbage. Gonna do some serious work next time we get a good snow melt to fight back the bramble and get at the junk.

Anybody mess around with a sled or something that I can drag from my drawbar and load **** into? I'd be paying attention to slope of course so it doesn't slide into me. It'd be a great help to use it like a massive wheelbarrow.

Worth every bit of work.

 

[Hay Dude]

Beautiful picture, PlasterProspector.

 

[Bill Guenthner]

Well, after more exploration with all the leaves bare it does seem at least like the junk is mostly contained to the first five acres or so. After that it's sporadic, the odd pile of beer bottles in the woods or old hunting stand. Seems the junkers were too lazy to walk their junk out into the fields. Sadly, my mile or so of hedgerows all have barbwire buried into the trunks.

I'm trying to clear new growth to get at the garbage. Gonna do some serious work next time we get a good snow melt to fight back the bramble and get at the junk.

Anybody mess around with a sled or something that I can drag from my drawbar and load **** into? I'd be paying attention to slope of course so it doesn't slide into me. It'd be a great help to use it like a massive wheelbarrow.

Worth every bit of work.View attachment 734485

It’s just sad that people treated the land like that. I have a similar (thought not nearly as large) situation. People need to realize that they cannot “own” the land, they can only be it’s caretaker for future generations.

 

[Bill Guenthner]

Sad situation you have there, with the multi-year's worth of trash. Sadly, even if you do get it all removed that you can see, you'll find that more just keeps coming to the top over the coming years. BT-DT.

The property I now live on had many year's worth of household garbage dumped into the woods out back. I've been working a little at a time for 10 years cleaning those piles up. Believe me, there's no end to it. Fortunately, it's not nearly as bad as what I see in the pictures you've posted.

I had an opportunity to buy the 5 acres next door for a song and a dance, but being smarter after working to clean up my 13 acres, I passed on it. It had 4.5 acres of it that 5 that had been used as a dump for many years past. It wouldn't be worthwhile to me and any price.

I don't want to discourage you from attempting to clean up your place. That, you have to do in my humble opinion. But to "clean up" a large area, either for yourself or someone else... and endless task is ahead.

You make a good point. There’s liable to be more than meets the eye. It might be better to remove the most visible and let nature take the rest

 

[JDZ735M]

Worth every bit of work.

It sure is! Nice dog too BTW! Just keep telling yourself, All it takes is a little time and a few kind words. Every Day! It will be worth it!

 

[PlasterProspector]

It’s just sad that people treated the land like that. I have a similar (thought not nearly as large) situation. People need to realize that they cannot “own” the land, they can only be it’s caretaker for future generations.

That's the same view I take. It's not mine, it's just my turn and when I have kids I want them to have a better turn than I did. Stewardship.

 

[tmc_31]

I recently purchased a skeleton (rock) bucket with two grapple lids on it. I have been using this on my skid steer (with foamed tires) cleaning 20 years of trash off my property. I found that by pushing the skeleton bucket into the pile at ground level, I eliminated much of the degris that would likely damage my tires. I separated the trash from the salvageable metals and hauled the trash to the landfill (where they charged me to dump) and the metals to the salvage yard (where they paid me to dump). In all, it took about 5-8yd loads in my newly acquired 7X16X2 14K dump trailer. The dump fees were pretty much offset by the payments from the metal salvage

While not as extensive a project as yours, I had a lot of fun doing it. I live in West Texas where the dirt is usually pretty dry so it sifted through the tines (2.5" spacing between tines) on the skeleton bucket very nicely.

How about hooking a dump trailer to your tractor 3 point and pulling it to the area that you are going to work on. Then loading trash or salvage with a grapple rake attached to your FEL. Take the loaded trailer to the dump or salvage yard. Now you only have to handle the junk once.

 

[Blue Mule]

What are your resources and capabilities? Can you rent and run a dozer? Excavator? Or hire someone with them?

Push it all into a pile and load it into a dump truck.

Where to haul it might be another issue. Will local dumps take it?

You see properties like this in Kentucky all the time. Sad that people are so lazy.

I like this idea. In the long run it would be easier to hire a guy with a dozer to do 1 day's work pushing it all in a pile. Then it's isolated. Later on you can hire a guy with a small excavator + thumb to load it onto a dump truck and haul it away, or you can rent a mini-ex with a thumb and load it onto your own trailer to haul away.

Much faster and more efficient than risking tractor tires and buying attachments.