It can be surprising what you can rent when you really want to. We had to move some big rocks. This is what we came up with.
No, it wasn’t me driving; I had some (really great) help with that part.
One task for the excavator was to move some large boulders to form a flat pad at the top of the little knoll above our property, where we hope to place several water tanks. These will provide us with a gravity-fed source of water, both for domestic use and hopefully also emergency irrigation that can defend against the next wildfire. Here you can see the excavator at work on the top of the knoll.
After a day or so of excavator work, our new pad was finished!
We now have plenty of room at the top for several water tanks, as well as enough space to turn a truck around too! I’ll give this grading an A.