Cleaning Up Substantial Yard Debris

[PlasterProspector]

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.

 

[ruffdog]

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.

 

[Hay Dude]

Thanks and blessings for what you are doing.

 

[jeff9366]

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

 

[Diggin It]

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?

 

[PlasterProspector]

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.

I've had a lot of success hammering logging tongs into big stuff and dragging it out. Really underrated tool. Often times you can open it, slam one side into an object and then when the chain comes tight it gets a fantastic grip with the other side. I've got a neighbor who likes to rip up my fields on his snowmobile and cut paths through my trees so I'm going to use em to drag some logs over to the property line.

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

I like these. It could certainly help get most of the stuff and then I could just flag each spot and rake it every mud season to work the tiny stuff into the soil.

A large part of my concern is it feels like every time I clean something big that I've just left small stuff behind that now I won't be able to find.

 

[PlasterProspector]

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?

I'm pretty well restricted to what I've got for now. The dump gets shy about renting out the big dumpsters this time of year so I'm just going to try to centralize the debris over the course of the winter. That's what I did over the last few months and it filled two 30yd dumpsters.

 

[DB Pilot]

I have a similar situation, not nearly as bad as yours, but This year I found a sink and railroad ties plus lots of plastic, oh I forgot a piece of corrugated sheet metal under some leaves. Not to mention the tree to tree wire fencing I almost have cleaned up. Bought the (75 acres) property in 2001.
I think you are doing the cleanup just as I have with the tractor bucket. I have a skeleton bucket but it is of little use so I can't recommend that. The problem is that damp soil will not sift well, so when you try to shake it, I start worrying about the hydraulics. The dump trailer has been invaluable hauling to the landfill.
I guess it is easy to create a mess but hard and very costly to clean it up. I found a refrigerator, stove, 5 cast iron sinks, farm disc, plow, record player, roofing shingles, 62 tires, recliner (with rotten foam rubber), etc. getting ready to pick it up, each time I found myself asking ***WHY***. Finally I never found a easy method of cleaning up the land but it is very rewarding when an area gets cleaned.

 

[PlasterProspector]

I guess it is easy to create a mess but hard and very costly to clean it up. I found a refrigerator, stove, 5 cast iron sinks, farm disc, plow, record player, roofing shingles, 62 tires, recliner (with rotten foam rubber), etc. getting ready to pick it up, each time I found myself asking ***WHY***.

I figured out the why part recently. I've got a pile of old tires out there and I'll be honest, when I changed my car tires recently I did look sideways at that pile and think, eh, what's a few more. I snapped myself out of it and did the right thing though. Trouble is, it's a snowball.

 

[groundcover]

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