Well 6000 sq ft is pretty small to me, I would start raking.
With my pine straw rake pictured below I could do that in about 20 minutes or more depending on obstacles. Everythingattachments.com has a new model with replaceable tines that I would recommend, cost is about 300 to 400 depending on width.
I should add that the third picture shows what one pass will do, and it doesn't hurt the grass either. The lawn pictured is from a customers new purchase and the grass was about gone from too many pine needles snuffing it out. The rake is light at about 70 lbs for the 6' model shown and I also add about 80 lbs of weight to it when using it to dethatch dense lawn areas.
