Cleaning Up Substantial Yard Debris

[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.