Trashing The Planet (or at least one little corner of it)

[quicksandfarmer]

I had some friends who bought a small farm for their horses. In the middle of the pasture was a deep, long ditch full of trash. They set about to lean it out. They pulled out a couple of trash bags and found the filled with old movie film and even an old projector. So they cleaned it all up and sat down to see what they had and discovered about 20 years of homemade ****. They even recognized some of the neighbors minus 30 years. There were dozens of tapes from the thirties and forties. hey ended up donating it to the National Museum of Pornography in D.C.

You win. Nothing I've dug up compares.

 

[JasperFrank]

I looked at many properties while looking for places that were for sale. This around 1994. One stood out as a horror show. It was 40 acres that was a plant nursery. It was narrow, yet long, starting at the base of a hill and going up with southern exposure. At the open house my partner and I took a long walk up the property. Since , you have to see all of it to make an assessment. No one else at the open house did this walk. They just stayed at the base where the house, well, and main nursery was. I began to see many cuts and refills in the hill. Like steps that were then covered up. These just didn't seem like normal geology for that area. Partner and i thought this would make a good place for growing grapes. I got to the top of the property and found one of the new cut outs that had not been covered. It was filled with used pesticide, other machinery chemical containers, and household trash. Looked at a few of the containers and they still had some original contents. I had to sit down and think about all those other filled cuts I had seen. This is what they did. They just cut a step, filled it with trash and then covered it over and year by year just moved up the hill. Back at the open house, I was talking to the realtor and asked her if she had walked the whole property. She had not. So I suggested, with a wink, that she really should explore the top of the hill.

 

[cat fever]

The place I sold last year had a neighbor to the south of my land. I guarantee he never threw anything in the trash can. He had 15 acres to fill up with trash first. I would get so upset that he'd get another piece of junk and park it on the fence line between us. One trailer he had was full of wood scapes and cardboard. Every time it blew....yup in my field it came. I was always pushing crap away from the fence line that they would pile up. I liked where I lived but I hated living next to that neighbor. I moved last year, my new place is clean. There is some junk fencing that needs to be cleaned up and hauled off but given I have 31+ acres it's pretty clean.

 

[Jstpssng]

I looked at many properties while looking for places that were for sale. This around 1994. One stood out as a horror show. It was 40 acres that was a plant nursery. It was narrow, yet long, starting at the base of a hill and going up with southern exposure. At the open house my partner and I took a long walk up the property. Since , you have to see all of it to make an assessment. No one else at the open house did this walk. They just stayed at the base where the house, well, and main nursery was. I began to see many cuts and refills in the hill. Like steps that were then covered up. These just didn't seem like normal geology for that area. Partner and i thought this would make a good place for growing grapes. I got to the top of the property and found one of the new cut outs that had not been covered. It was filled with used pesticide, other machinery chemical containers, and household trash. Looked at a few of the containers and they still had some original contents. I had to sit down and think about all those other filled cuts I had seen. This is what they did. They just cut a step, filled it with trash and then covered it over and year by year just moved up the hill. Back at the open house, I was talking to the realtor and asked her if she had walked the whole property. She had not. So I suggested, with a wink, that she really should explore the top of the hill.

I never found that a realtor gave two whits about what they were listing, as long as they make their sale. I used to do property lines for a local broker. The description said that the lines went to "Jim Brown Brook"; upon walking them I realized that they stopped short of that stream on a smaller, unnamed brook and that the parcel was much smaller than advertised. I spent several days trying to figure out what was going on with the boundaries on that parcel, finally realizing that it was cheaper to eat my time than to attempt what required a licensed surveyor- which I'm not.
I reported what I had found, ate the several hundred dollar loss, and was talking to the new owner a few years later, who still believes that he owns frontage on Jim Brown Brook. After a few years that realtor finally figured out that I wasn't interested in doing any more work for him.

 

[gonnasellit]

I bought a 20 acre parcel of land on which a 94 year old aunt had lived for about 76 years. It's located in south Alabama in a rural area surrounded by farms and woods. People in this area were all dirt poor, including her. Most of the land had once been cultivated but over the years had been allowed to grow up in yaupon and privet bushes. There was also an abundance of what had to be some of the world's largest popcorn (Chinese tallow) trees. I was amazed at what I found when I started clearing it. There were 236 tires scattered all over the property. There were also a couple of barns and a chicken house. Inside the chicken house was a collection of glass jars. The landfill would only take them if they were broken up. I broke and hauled 3,460 pounds of broken glass to the landfill. That's a lot of jars! There was also over 11,000 pounds of scrap metal. There were also junk cars, junk lawnmowers, a pile of debris from a burned down house which had been pushed into the woods, and several piles of household trash. I've so far put over 1,200 hrs. on my tractor doing the cleanup. It's almost back to it's former glory and I hope it stay's that way for generations to come. It's such a shame that there was a time when land seemed to be such a disposable entity to so many people. I guess survival from day to day was priority one.

 

[goeduck]

Holy cow! ^^^^

 

[CobyRupert]

 

[oosik]

The 80 acres I have here is part of an original homestead -1890. We moved down from Alaska in 1982. The old homestead buildings were all generally in one location. Over time they have rotted down and are now part of the soil.

HOWEVER - what remained and to a limited extent, still does. Miles of really old rusted barbed wire. The old homesteader REALLY like his barbed wire and LARGE quantities of nails/spikes. I've given all the old "flat barbed" barb wire to the Historical Society that they could ever want/need.

I finally took everything off my single bottom plow - leaving just a single tooth. I've made many, many passes - snaking out this old barbed wire.

About the time I feel good about this - I will find another run of wire. Thirty eight plus years and it's still coming out of the ground.

 

[cat fever]

This is a thread that should be read by anyone thinking of buying land. It could save them lots of dollars by either not buying or lowering the price of the land because of clean up costs.

 

[Industrial Toys]

Amazing hom many contractors make extra money cleaning up places and taking all kinds of scrap and good stuff away. Even charging them to take their old oil/fuel tanks away, sometimes quite full.