Site Rough Grading

 I started asking around if someone had a bulldozer who could  come and push the ground and rock around in the backyard. I had a contractor that I know, Bill Wilkins, come over and check it out. Unfortunately, he had a problem with his dozer--one of the tracks wasn't right and caused it not to steer well. He may have been able to do the back for me, if the back was open and he didn't have to be too accurate with his steering. I invited him over to take a look at it any way. As soon as he saw it he said, "you need a shovel, not a dozer"

What we had pulled out for the foundation was mostly rock and clay. 

So Bill gave me the number of Fernando Messercola, an excavator.

I left a message and he called me back. We had a chat and he was supposed to come down and take a look at the yard. Then it snowed and he was busy plowing. A week or so went by, the snow melted. I started leaving him messages. One morning he calls me up to take a look at it and all of a sudden he shows up with the machine!

That is, 15 minutes later, here it is...

He started at the piles to get them out of the way. Then he worked his way from the porch backing away , down the slope. The yard expanded as he pushed back the material. I ran around trying to set the grades ahead of where he was, marking +3 feet with red tape and nails on trees.

At the end, we had 18 tons of DGA (dense grade aggregate) delivered and spread by the back driveway.