I rented an excavator and used it to finish the earthwork in the 1st half of the Big Cut.
Here's a slideshow of the cut after I finished with the excavator.
I also extended the rough grade about 50' beyond the current end:
The upper half of the cut is at final grade, and the lower half is roughly graded, but a few sections in the middle still need fill.
Trees prevented me from reaching this spot with the excavator, so I made a big pile of dirt nearby that I'll wheelbarrow in.
Meanwhile, water slowly fills the sections:
I plucked out the big boulder that had fallen into the cut:
In order to grab the big boulder I had to remove a rotten stump above the cut.
Naturally, a bunch of stump, dirt, and other crap slid into the cut:
Backfill on the outside of the retaining walls:
At the very end of the cut I created a box culvert to receive the water from the gutters.
Once grading is complete, the culvert will be almost entirely buried:
Side view of the culvert; it empties into a ditch I created that allows the water to settle & soak in:
Click on the image below to view a movie of the gutters and culvert in action (3.5MB WMV)
