General Lee, Perhaps I could provide more information on the excavation for you, as I too was a little daunted at how to go about it initially. I don't claim that what I did was right nor the best, but I think the outcome is acceptable.
First I pullled the top soil off the high side and set it out of the way for reuse at the end. I did not disturb the earth on the low side. I then angled my box so that it set level while the tractor was setting across the slope long ways (tractor down/up hill side to side). With this angle I begain cutting across the slope at the high side pulling the dirt to the low end and down the hill at the end of the run. I repeated this until I had a "cliff" about 4' high (slope dependent) at the up hill side. Then I moved down to the next "row" and cut some off there in the same fashion. I then leveled my bb w.r.t. the tractor and pulled cross ways from uphill side to down hill side until the whole thing was about level. Occasionally when the piles were starting to build up on the low side I would switch the bb to leveling rather than cutting and smooth, spread and compact the down hill fill dirt. There were two shelves of shale rock that would not cut easily. For these, I used the teeth to break up, and then collected and move the loose material. Once I got it about where I wanted it, I then smoothed and leveled the whole work area using the bb by driving around all over, changing direction and approach several times.
After I had the area prepped, I then went above the cliff and starting cutting with my loader about 5 feet from the edge, pushing the cut dirt over the cliff. I repeated until the cliff became a slope. I then filled in and dressed it up with the top soil I had collected at the beginning. Then I compacted with the tractor, back dragged with the loader, and smoothed with the bb. Once I finished, I went to the bottom of the bank and cleaned up at the base. The end result was a slope gentle enough to mow across safely. I was even able to pull the bb across it sideways. My bank does have a slight hump in it because the shale runs through it and I was too lazy to break up the shale. I just decided it was good enough.
For drainage, as a last step, I tilted my bb up hill a little and cut in a few passes at the bottom of the slope so that water off the roof of the carport will flow away from the pad toward the bottom of the bank. I then made sure that this low spot sloped off longetudinally into the woods. The hope is that the water will collect in this slight culvert and flow off into the woods.
I have not dressed in the low side of the fill area of the pad. I'm going to wait for it to settle a bit first. After that, I plan to put in 2 truck loads of CnR where the carport will sit and the rest will get grass seed after raking.
