Cleaning Up Substantial Yard Debris

[Have tractor did travel]

That's the good half.

You're an optimist !

My house also 1918. Built at bottom of a hill. Back half of the house on crawl space. Footer on foundation only 8" from earth. Termites made their way. Front half of the house lots of water entry into basement. I'm dealing with black mold. In fact, today I plan to install propane fueled catalytic space heater to raise temp (reduce relative humidity), and get on the phone to get help identifying if mold is poisonous or not.

With dirttoys, you, me, and others, eventually we'll get this country cleaned up.

 

[LittleBittyBigJohn]

I have been living this life a little bit over the past year or so. The land my family and I moved onto had a house trailer that was taken out by a tornado. Big stuff got hand picked, then scraped up the small stuff into a pile with more top soil than I wanted in it.... I have been slowly using it to fill holes etc. Posted it as dirty fill on FB Marketplace and was able to offload some of it. I still find glass, dishes, sink parts, lighting fixtures etc...

 

[Gord Baker]

Forget the magnet. That will only do Ferrous material. Rent a tracked BobCat and a rake type bucket and Drag stuff to a central area using bucket near vertical. Set heavy/quantities aside Aluminium in one pile, steel in the other . Get it hauled and leave the tiny remaining bits to be reclaimed by nature.

 

[Gord Baker]

You're an optimist !

My house also 1918. Built at bottom of a hill. Back half of the house on crawl space. Footer on foundation only 8" from earth. Termites made their way. Front half of the house lots of water entry into basement. I'm dealing with black mold. In fact, today I plan to install propane fueled catalytic space heater to raise temp (reduce relative humidity), and get on the phone to get help identifying if mold is poisonous or not.

With dirttoys, you, me, and others, eventually we'll get this country cleaned up.

Save yourself time and money. It sounds like a project home for someone else or a teardown. Mold must be removed. You likely have asbestos tiles etc as well. A job for the pro's.

 

[seldridge279]

How about a set of clamp on, 13-spear ULTRAFORKS?

The round spears allow some dirt to fall through.

Multi-Spear Ultra Fork

tractor round hay bale spear picks up to 2,000 lbs.

bucketsolutions.com

Hey folks, I moved onto about 80 acres and the first five of it have been used as a junkyard for all kinds of miscellaneous debris and junk. I've got tires, washing machines, broken bottles, rotted mattresses, three sets of crutches (?), rotted old furniture with nails sticking out and so much more. It's been accumulated by poor stewards over the last thirty years and most of it is so small I've only been able to use my tractor as a glorified wheelbarrow while I hand load the FEL. I've already done two 30yd dumpsters for just the easy stuff. Now that the leaves are off the trees I can see that it's so much worse than I imagined. It's a million tiny pieces of junk seemingly everywhere in the brush. I've already had two punctures in the last few months.

Anyone have any experience cleaning up this sort of thing before? I bought a metal detector and a magnetic sweep but it feels like I'm picking needles off a pine tree. Would a skeleton bucket be useful or maybe some other attachment? I looked into hanging magnets and magnetizing my bucket but my terrain is so uneven.

Had a similar problem with punctures cleaning up after wildfire here a CA. Everyday I would go out and have to plug tires and refill. Finally had front and rear tires foam filled. No more punctures.

 

[TKBlanc]

Humans can be such dirty creatures sometimes. Good for you for taking the time and effort to clean up after others. It looks like a rock grapple might help with the big stuff and hanging magnets under the tractor to pick up nails would work? Good luck!

A lifting magnet might be your best bet if the items are bigger.

Yep. I was going to suggest mounting a large magnet like a sickle bar somehow so he could capture the next-row-over before he mows it. Fewer punctures that way.

 

[prairiegirl]

While a magnet would pick up a lot of the nails, there likely are shards of glass and other nasty things there to poke your tires. Sometimes the only thing is to pick up what you see and after that scrape/push the top layer into a big hole.
But it seems there are trees there? Complicates things.

 

[sunandsand]

Trash trash trash . . .

70 acres . . . same owner for 20ish years, total slob and moron.

Four front loader tires, garbage, blown out sidewalls, full of water, sand, mosquitoes, one on a rim, all stuffed in the bushes, overgrown, out of sight out of (his) mind. Six feet tall! Three of them off the rim came out using pallet forks, the last one had to be dragged out with a chain.

How to get rid of them? . . . nearest recycler for tires this big is Pittsburgh (I'm in FL), that won't work. Try Cragslist, free landscaping tires, no nibbles. Get a phone call "Still gottem?" yes. "Advertise them as crossfit." Click.

OK, change ad. Three tires go out in three days flat, still have the one on the rim. Someone calls, I tell them they'll need a beefy trailer because this thing is HEAVY. In fact, my tractor won't lift it - neighbor's much bigger one will, but just.

Guy shows up with a landscaper's trailer (light duty) behind an old Ranger pickup. I tell him this tire is going to bust his trailer, he says, no, it is a strong trailer, go ahead and load it. Reluctantly, we do, and we watch the trailer go to its knees as we gradually lower the tire and rim onto it.

He starts the truck and merrily goes off down our dirt road to the city's paved road. I'm thinking please Lord, don't let that trailer break until he's off the property. Prayer answered, he made it to the paved road and we never saw him again.


Mess number two - about 40 old tires piled into a 25 foot fiberglass boat hull, lots of holes, dirt, standing water and wasp nests. Ick. Local dump wants to charge $35 a foot to take it, and we have to saw it up and deliver it. Contract trash hauler for the city says four tires a year - it is going to take me a decade to clean this up. Double ick.

Contract trash hauler goes to city to renew their contract. One commissioner says he'll vote yes if they can put the city logo on the trash buggies. Hauler says OK, but who has the logo artwork? Silence - until I say " I do, I'll send it to you." Contract approved.

Three days later I call the guy up and ask if he got the artwork. Yes and thank you. Oh by the way, I have this busted up old boat hull full of tires, it is 400 feet from the entrance to the property, do you have any idea how I might be able to get rid of it? Next morning it is GONE -somehow magically disappeared ;-)


We're still finding occasional tires, rolls of chain link fencing, old telephone poles, empty oil cans, but it is becoming manageable. Amazing how grubby some people can be - but we will make it all go away, eventually.

Best Regards,

Mike/Florida

 

[Budweiser John]

This would be just the ticket, don't have the flat tire issues either.

My son has one of those with a grapple and they are amazenly gutsey machines

 

[RancherGuy]

Good dialogs. It seems that my wife and I are attracted to junk. We bought 3 properties, each over 100 acres and every one has required lots of cleanup. All tend to be a multi-year project even if the bulk is taken care of early on. Always find something new here and there.

A few responses have mentioned renting a trash dumpster after piling the debris in a convenient location - good idea. I have a suggestion. You can get by without buying a dump trailer if you don't want to invest in one. But I think in the long run you would get a lot of use from one. I was selling some stuff once and the buyer showed up with what looks like what I see when I search for photos of "PJ Dump Trailer, D3 12'x72" Tandem Axle". I was very impressed and reflected on the usefulness of a trailer like that for my needs. Could move debris or equipment. Containment sides are not too high. The cost for trash dumpsters could help offset the investment. Instead of making piles then loading a dumpster, set your trailer at a convenient location and only move debris once.

 

[sunandsand]

State efforts to clean up the environment . . .

Get a phone call from the appropriate functionary at the city "Mike, can you come down to city hall for a few moments?" Sure, on my way.

"State requires us to have a conference regarding brownfields (parcels contaminated with oil, heavy metals, etc.) and remediation for them."

"Yes, we really ought to do something about that."

"OK, thank you, we've just had the state required conference. Anything else you'd like to discuss while you're here?"

Bureaucracy 101 - Have lots of meetings, document them all, say "tut tut" a few times, but don't actually do ANYTHING you could possibly get blamed for, repeat until retirement age. Take the gold (plated) watch and say thank you at the photo op, collect pension.

As Will Rogers used to say, I don't make this up, Congress does, I just report it.


(Actually, we're quite lucky here. We have a very competent staff, some good city commissioners, a great mayor and a wonderful building inspector.)


Best Regards,

Mike/Florida

 

[Golden Rocket]

Hey folks, I moved onto about 80 acres and the first five of it have been used as a junkyard for all kinds of miscellaneous debris and junk. I've got tires, washing machines, broken bottles, rotted mattresses, three sets of crutches (?), rotted old furniture with nails sticking out and so much more. It's been accumulated by poor stewards over the last thirty years and most of it is so small I've only been able to use my tractor as a glorified wheelbarrow while I hand load the FEL. I've already done two 30yd dumpsters for just the easy stuff. Now that the leaves are off the trees I can see that it's so much worse than I imagined. It's a million tiny pieces of junk seemingly everywhere in the brush. I've already had two punctures in the last few months.

Anyone have any experience cleaning up this sort of thing before? I bought a metal detector and a magnetic sweep but it feels like I'm picking needles off a pine tree. Would a skeleton bucket be useful or maybe some other attachment? I looked into hanging magnets and magnetizing my bucket but my terrain is so uneven.

For mine I used the root rake grapple on the loader and back dragged to form piles I could 1. grapple out, or 2. bucket out - I then sorted out the metal for scrap - anything burnable goes to a burn site (fire going or burn later doesn't make any difference) the rest of the crap goes to bulk garbage landfill management. I have one area where I will put garbage but only compostable garbage as I am filling in a very large hole at the end of a field (just because I can). Cleaning up after others is certainly hard work - I was also lucky enough to find two old aluminum garage doors - salvaged those to use as pads for stockpiling the metal and the bulk - as for the scrap metal, I have a fella that comes over once or twice a year (whenever I have a good size pile really) and hauls it all away - no cost to me, he gets the money (in a sense I make a donation that way) - cheers and all the best with your project

 

[greggyy]

Down here companies will come and collect any scrap metal. They even pay sometimes.

But I would hire a dozer or tracked loader, scrape it into piles, then load into trucks or whatever. If you have some areas you want to fill, you could scrape enough up and use it to fill elsewhere on the place.

It was a common sight down here, people often had an area for dumping on farm, but today a lot of the metal etc is re useable, but a lot of work to sort.

 

[panamaguy]

Hey folks, I moved onto about 80 acres and the first five of it have been used as a junkyard for all kinds of miscellaneous debris and junk. I've got tires, washing machines, broken bottles, rotted mattresses, three sets of crutches (?), rotted old furniture with nails sticking out and so much more. It's been accumulated by poor stewards over the last thirty years and most of it is so small I've only been able to use my tractor as a glorified wheelbarrow while I hand load the FEL. I've already done two 30yd dumpsters for just the easy stuff. Now that the leaves are off the trees I can see that it's so much worse than I imagined. It's a million tiny pieces of junk seemingly everywhere in the brush. I've already had two punctures in the last few months.

Anyone have any experience cleaning up this sort of thing before? I bought a metal detector and a magnetic sweep but it feels like I'm picking needles off a pine tree. Would a skeleton bucket be useful or maybe some other attachment? I looked into hanging magnets and magnetizing my bucket but my terrain is so uneven.

With that much tire eating stuff in the mix rent a cat and have him dig a hole and push it in and cover with the material from the hole. Some treasure hunter will unearth it in a 100 yrs or so

 

[Rockbadchild]

ha man that’s that worse … id get a excavator with a big magnet just like in industrial scrap yard to come in to pick up all the metals then id use grappler bucket on your tractor to pick up the rest.

 

[rademamj1]

Most of my junk was visible on the surface, even though lots of vines present, you could still see much of it. I found a landscape rake to be a low cost and effective method at moving all the junk debris into piles. The landscape rake is rotated to reverse, so while backing up with your tractor, your actually scraping and plowing that junk very effectively into debris piles, without damaging tires. You eventually become expert at such work....with persistent effort.

Then it becomes a process of moving those debris piles into the dumpster and off to the county landfill. Special items like heavy concrete, refrigerators and tires should be first identified and removed by bucket into a collection. Recycle the tires. Refrigerators can be taken to the landfill but require extra fee. Any heavy concrete debris, well you should just put it aside for deep burial...with prayers that future owners won't know anything was buried.

 

[PlasterProspector]

You're an optimist !

My house also 1918. Built at bottom of a hill. Back half of the house on crawl space. Footer on foundation only 8" from earth. Termites made their way. Front half of the house lots of water entry into basement. I'm dealing with black mold. In fact, today I plan to install propane fueled catalytic space heater to raise temp (reduce relative humidity), and get on the phone to get help identifying if mold is poisonous or not.

With dirttoys, you, me, and others, eventually we'll get this country cleaned up.

My family motto is to do better than our parents did. That's what our parents said and that's what we'll say to our kids.

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.

I did end up doing this. Got two people who basically told me how to sort my recycling.

Good dialogs. It seems that my wife and I are attracted to junk. We bought 3 properties, each over 100 acres and every one has required lots of cleanup. All tend to be a multi-year project even if the bulk is taken care of early on. Always find something new here and there.

A few responses have mentioned renting a trash dumpster after piling the debris in a convenient location - good idea. I have a suggestion. You can get by without buying a dump trailer if you don't want to invest in one. But I think in the long run you would get a lot of use from one. I was selling some stuff once and the buyer showed up with what looks like what I see when I search for photos of "PJ Dump Trailer, D3 12'x72" Tandem Axle". I was very impressed and reflected on the usefulness of a trailer like that for my needs. Could move debris or equipment. Containment sides are not too high. The cost for trash dumpsters could help offset the investment. Instead of making piles then loading a dumpster, set your trailer at a convenient location and only move debris once.

I looked into a dump trailer. I've got an old 5.4L 2002 F250. Wasn't sure what kind of trailer I could handle.

State efforts to clean up the environment . . .

Get a phone call from the appropriate functionary at the city "Mike, can you come down to city hall for a few moments?" Sure, on my way.

"State requires us to have a conference regarding brownfields (parcels contaminated with oil, heavy metals, etc.) and remediation for them."

"Yes, we really ought to do something about that."

"OK, thank you, we've just had the state required conference. Anything else you'd like to discuss while you're here?"

Bureaucracy 101 - Have lots of meetings, document them all, say "tut tut" a few times, but don't actually do ANYTHING you could possibly get blamed for, repeat until retirement age. Take the gold (plated) watch and say thank you at the photo op, collect pension.

As Will Rogers used to say, I don't make this up, Congress does, I just report it.


(Actually, we're quite lucky here. We have a very competent staff, some good city commissioners, a great mayor and a wonderful building inspector.)


Best Regards,

Mike/Florida

Meetings on meetings. Just about every town in my state has an ordinance against keeping junk on your property. My neighbors don't want it there, my town doesn't want it there, my state doesn't want it there but nobody except family will help me.

For mine I used the root rake grapple on the loader and back dragged to form piles I could 1. grapple out, or 2. bucket out - I then sorted out the metal for scrap - anything burnable goes to a burn site (fire going or burn later doesn't make any difference) the rest of the crap goes to bulk garbage landfill management. I have one area where I will put garbage but only compostable garbage as I am filling in a very large hole at the end of a field (just because I can). Cleaning up after others is certainly hard work - I was also lucky enough to find two old aluminum garage doors - salvaged those to use as pads for stockpiling the metal and the bulk - as for the scrap metal, I have a fella that comes over once or twice a year (whenever I have a good size pile really) and hauls it all away - no cost to me, he gets the money (in a sense I make a donation that way) - cheers and all the best with your project

Previous renter, one of the junk dumpers, hauled off the scrap metal for cash before he left. I found a few thousand multi-purpose GRK screws he forgot though so more fool him.

 

[ddbackhoe]

My family motto is to do better than our parents did. That's what our parents said and that's what we'll say to our kids.

Good, I’m not a believer in burying stuff to make it go away.
For your trash problem, for the little stuff, I would try renting a skid steer and a rock hound/landscape rake/soil prepper.

another option could be a bucket like this

 

[dirttoys]

My family motto is to do better than our parents did. That's what our parents said and that's what we'll say to our kids.

I did end up doing this. Got two people who basically told me how to sort my recycling.

I looked into a dump trailer. I've got an old 5.4L 2002 F250. Wasn't sure what kind of trailer I could handle.

Meetings on meetings. Just about every town in my state has an ordinance against keeping junk on your property. My neighbors don't want it there, my town doesn't want it there, my state doesn't want it there but nobody except family will help me.

Previous renter, one of the junk dumpers, hauled off the scrap metal for cash before he left. I found a few thousand multi-purpose GRK screws he forgot though so more fool him.

I think the house may deserve its' own thread, water/mold issues suck.

your ford should manage a 6 ton trailer if it is in good shape. I have a 14k 7 ton I pull with an old 350. But, I haul a lot of gravel, junk is not nearly as heavy and the bulk starts to dictate load size more than weight. In general a pair of 7k axles yield a 7 ton trailer, and that is what I would recommend (you can easily pull it with a half ton truck if you load it lite). If you don't see a future in it, you can rent one as well.

Good luck, seems you have your hands full, put your resources into a place to live safely before you kill yourself cleaning up the fields.

Best,

ed

 

[PlasterProspector]

Good, I’m not a believer in burying stuff to make it go away.
For your trash problem, for the little stuff, I would try renting a skid steer and a rock hound/landscape rake/soil prepper.

another option could be a bucket like this

That bucket is phenomenal

I think the house may deserve its' own thread, water/mold issues suck.

your ford should manage a 6 ton trailer if it is in good shape. I have a 14k 7 ton I pull with an old 350. But, I haul a lot of gravel, junk is not nearly as heavy and the bulk starts to dictate load size more than weight. In general a pair of 7k axles yield a 7 ton trailer, and that is what I would recommend (you can easily pull it with a half ton truck if you load it lite). If you don't see a future in it, you can rent one as well.

Good luck, seems you have your hands full, put your resources into a place to live safely before you kill yourself cleaning up the fields.

Best,

ed

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.