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.