Trash Cleanup

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The property we purchased in Sunbright had had a fire, and a manufactured home had burned to the ground. It was large, a double wide. This is what was left:

It was a considerable eyesore, and hazardous, with all the broken glass and metal. It seemed like the best first step in developing our land was to clean it up. I hoped to ultimately put a garden there. It was a perfect spot for it, with good drainage, and plenty of sun.

We closed on the property on August 6th. In October we took our first trip up to camp on the land and work. I hadn't ordered the dumpster delivery enough in advance, so we just had shovels, and buckets, and heavy duty garbage bags. The map showed a landfill a mile down the road from Sunbright, so we figured we'd haul it all out ourselves.

The first day was hot and brutal, with a ton of ash, and metal, and twisted vinyl - we weren't even making a dent in it. There was no way we were going to knock this out in a day or two, without a dumpster. So we went and got supplies, and my wife dropped me and our daughters off - Rachael's 9, and Brooke's 7 - for a week up camping on the land and cleaning the burn site. My wife had to go back to work in Atlanta, but I was not employed at the time. I ordered a 15 yard dumpster from Junk Bee Gone. We would have it for three days for $225.

My kids and I set up camp down off the creek. It's the edge of the forest, and offered plenty of shade:

We're veteran campers that some years have spent more nights in a tent on the ground than in a bed. So this was nothing new to us. My biggest concern was how we were going to bathe while wading in this filth and debris day after day. The power wasn't on, so neither was the pump in the well, and we had no water.

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So my wife called an electrician out. There had been a fire, and the electrical was a mess. He spent one full day fixing everything at the power pole, and getting it ready for inspection. He reconnected the wiring to the well pump that had been cut down too close to the casing. He also replaced some piping that had burst. He showed me how to connect the wiring from the pump to the breaker out on the pole, so that after the inspection I could go out myself and hook it up. He charged us $300. It was a lot, but when it comes to electrical, I wouldn't have known where to begin. And most of these inspectors won't pass a property unless a licensed electrician has come out and done the work.
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The cleanup was a huge chore. I started by stacking all the usable cinder blocks off to the side. The broken ones I put in a pile. I also piled all the wood that hadn't burned to later be used as firewood. Here's a photo of the piles with the dumpster behind them:

It didn't take long to fill that dumpster. I got the worst of the mess out, but there was still tons and tons of debris. Here's a photo after three days of shovelling:


We were going to need another dumpster.

After three days of that filth, we needed a bath. Rachael and Brooke and I walked a mile back down the road to the last large creek we'd passed on the way up. It was far under a bridge and hidden. The water was dark and deep with a slight odor of manure, I guess from cows upstream. But we waded in naked and bathed, and felt a whole lot better.

The next day I took the intact cinder blocks and built a fireplace. It functioned both as furniture, a place to get out of the wind, and to sit around a fire. This is it:


The inspector came out and we passed. The next day the electrical company came and turned on the power. After they left I strung out the wire from the pumphouse to the pole, a good 150 feet. I opened the breaker box to connect the wire, and there was an animal in there! It didn't move, so I knocked it out with a stick. It was dead, but still warm, a flying squirrel. I'd never seen a flying squirrel before. I leaned close and took a photo:

Our dog Mishka got a hold of it and spent hours throwing it around.

I connected the pump, turned on the spigot, and we had water! We celebrated and squirted each other with the hose, and the girls played in their bathing suits. I found that if I stretched out the full length of black hose in the sun for an hour, I could have a quick hot shower. It was luxurious.

All the foliage was changing and very beautiful. Here's a shot of a red maple:


The small white structure is the pumphouse, a 10 x 10 shed built over the well by the original owners who had first developed this property. It's a great place for storing tools.

I noticed acorns raining down where we camped and pelting the tents. They were coming from giant 80 foot white oaks off the creek. I'd periodically snack on the acorns as I went up and down from camp. They were quite mild, with very little tannin at all. And what there was I got used to quickly. They're filling also. After half a dozen my hunger would disappear. Knowing we have an infinite supply of both berries and acorns makes this place seem even more ideal.

I filled a few more bags with trash, and then we loafed and took walks and played games. When the guy came to pick the dumpster up, he told me we had four days of rain about to hit. So I called my wife on his cell, and she came out that night to pick us up in the rain.