As I have been walking around I have noticed a lot trash left behind by the previous land owners. It has ranged from roofing sheet metal, steel barrels, tires, what I think is an old cast iron stove, plastic bottles, doors, tarps, pipes, planks, and numerous other things. I was not aware of a lot of this stuff when I bought it, so now I must clean it all up. It will take me a few days to collect everything and load it into a large dumpster I rented.
So far just one section of tarp had ants in it, I was careful to lift things with my shovel first in case a snake was around. Also watched out for yellow jackets, they nest in the ground and are still active in the fall.
I bought myself pickup truck, its a old Dodge Ram diesel. Since all I had was an SUV I needed something to haul around stuff in the bed. It has been working well, learning lots about this old diesel. Recently I had to get the water out of the fuel, something I never did on my Jeep for whatever reason. It was easy and will do a write up on it soon.
Wearing snake boots any time I go into the tall uncut grass, its usually made into hay. Seems the farmer that normally does that did not cut it all back this year. I have an agreement with a local farmer to use the fields I have for now until I need the space. They are growing tall grass to make hay, but some areas were left up so I make sure I wear my snake boots as you never know whats in that tall grass.
I found an old shack while working on my property, had no idea there was an little outbuilding there on the edge of the woods. Probably is an outhouse, I will go explore it soon. Just want to get the trash around cleaned up first.
We can see some of the trash in the above image, I already started cleaning it up by that point.
I have found at least three bales of old hay on the property, need to figure out what I am going to do with them. Maybe break them down and use it as growing media. Sweet potatoes love to grow in hay for example.
Ask and you shall receive, I needed a rock sifter and amazingly I found one out in the all the junk. I will be holding on to this. When I use my native dirt I will make sure to get more rocks out using this.. Just need to put it over a wheel barrel and get to work. Also found some good barbed wire, some bricks large and small.
It must be pretty new, the wood does not look all that worn yet.
In a single day I loaded about 10 percent or so of its capacity. I was pretty sore and taking a break for a day or two. Waiting for the weather to cool back down to make working outside more enjoyable.
The area is looking much more nice without all that junk out there. It was hidden in the tree line but still bothered me it was there.
Some of the trash was just moving supplies like bubble wrap, boxes and stuff left in the house by the previous owner.
The tarps I have found are the biggest problem, they are very old and have started breaking down. So when I grab them they just rip into a bunch of tiny pieces.. Very annoying.
Since there was a bunch of ants on them, I left them out overnight to disperse and then loaded them up the next day in the trash.
Next trash cleanup day I want to move more of the junk in the dumpster away from the door. I found a bunch of tires I need to throw out and they will be hard to toss over the top. I opened the door and its quite full by the opening, so I need to move that stuff and then bring the tires over and carry them in one by one.
The old cast iron stove will be a more interesting removal. I may use my Jeeps winch to drag it out of the forest and then I may need a tractor to move it into the dumpster.. Hoping I do not find more massive items that are going to be a huge pain in the ass to move.
So I will probably be dedicating at least 3-5 days collecting trash I find out in the woods. Will post updates as they happen.