Debris on old property

[Marsha Cassada]

I know anyone who has ever acquired an old property has a lot of clean up to do. We bought a pasture 7 years ago. There was an old wooden granary, and corral which the farmer used for holding cattle. We burnt the old granary and cleaned it all up. We still use the corral for my horses. I have found "artifacts" almost daily while cleaning up manure. I've found crusted pliers, chains, screwdrivers, bolts and nails.

We haven't had much rain in a while and the wind has been blowing, so that must account for the bumper crop I found today. I had to get the rolling magnet it was so bad. I keep wondering how deep this junk goes. Why would a farmer build a corral on top of a junkpile? Would he throw junk into his corral where his cattle could get injured? We are only the 3rd owners.

I keep thinking I have surely uncovered it all by now.

Here is what I found today:

 

[Shari]

Same problem here... I had three dump trailers full of stuff hauled away and we are not even close getting all the trash out. Every time it rains more stuff comes up in the pastures. Every time I am out there I do check the pastures, bag up anything I see.

I don't understand why people throw junk onto the land like that. Is really cheap to go to the dump.

Sorry you are dealing with the same problems.

 

[sedeh]

I've lived on my place for 18 years and had soooo much clean up when I first got on it. I still have stuff that I find that I wonder "where did that come from?".

 

[Bess Kelly]

This farm was a field of peanuts before I bought it so very little items come up. But, last farm was an old place that had been taken over by soldiers in the civil war. Things were always "coming up" there. We uncovered junk piles with tin cups, buckles, etc. Once when cleaning out in the old barn I found 2 cannon balls

You just never know, right?

Previous owner says he found a lot of arrowheads and showed me a stash of about 50 or so. I never got any of those but, probably because we sowed grass not cropping, so not plowing.

Found a few pretty interesting medicine and whiskey bottles, too.

 

[Miniv]

We've been here coming on 5 years.........And before us, the place was an Arab breeding ranch. We STILL find old nails and GLASS.......LOTS of glass pieces. Almost every day I'm picking up chunks of colored glass. WEIRD.

 

[Becky]

Yep, got the same problem here. Apparantly whoever lived here previously, used to throw their trash out the door! Or so it seems. Well, at least where I keep my horses dry lotted. I was told there use to be a mobile home out there. There used to be something, that's for sure. Glass, metal, car parts. You name it, I've found it. Everytime it rains or the wind blows, more stuff shows up. I'm always apologizing to visitors for the 'stuff' in the dry lots. No matter how much we pick up, more surfaces. It's never ending! Just a few days ago, I found a gold pocket watch after running my chain harrow out there. Probably not real gold, but I did bring it into the house.

 

[ruffian]

I found a 10" nail in my foal pen one year. Have NO idea where it came from. Also found a NICE arabian bridle one time. Amazing what comes up.

 

[Sterling]

When we first moved to our farm 20 years ago, we were finding things popping up left and right too. I could not understand why old colored glass, hardware, and rusty tools were appearing. To this day I still find an item or two. An old farmer from the area told me that back in the old days, peoplle would instead of going to dump sites and such, just dig huge holes in the ground and dump all the stuff in it. When it got full they would cover it over with dirt.

Bess--I think that is so NEAT what all you can find in places such as Virginia, Civil War related. When we would do our CW re-enacting out in New Market, Manassas and around the Shenandoah area we were always looking for things like that.

 

[Charley]

I keep finding pieces of broken glass. And there is a pickup truck buried up on the hill!

 

[Bunnylady]

The previous owner of our place had a firing range for his gun club here about 20 years back. Every time it rains, I scout around for more glass, and usually find at least a handful. If anyone could invent a "glass magnet," they'd have me for a customer for sure!

 

[Carolyn R]

Alot of old timers, farmers or not, had the idea "if it doesn't burn, put it in a junk pile". There are also many areas that were alot more remote than they are now, there weren't dumps or garbage pick ups in the day, so they reused what they were able to, burned what they were able to , and made a junk pile out of the other stuff.

 

[wildoak]

After building a house, I understand why we find nails, old food containers, etc........I was amazed at the amount of nails the construction guys dropped and left! We kept telling them we had horses, the place HAD to be cleaned up - but I guess their theory is that it's easier to leave the trash and cover it with topsoil than to pick it up. We went behind the barn builders everyday with a bucket and picked up nails, screws, pieces of tin.......

I think we got the barn area pretty clean, but there's probably a fortune buried around the house lol.

I think too it used to be more common for people to just dump their trash at the back of the property, or as someone said bury it. We had some very old car or wagon parts in the field when we moved here - wrapped around a tree near a creek that occasionally floods.

Jan