Cabin Site Preparation - Stump Removal and Ground Leveling

My dad and I started work today on removing tree stumps and leveling the ground for the cabin.  My dad met me at the land with his New Holland LS180 skid steer which incredibly impacted what we were able to accomplish.  We arrived at 8:30 and he immediately started work on the stumps.

The stumps were rather difficult to remove as the roots had all grown together.  As he dug up around them, I cut a few of the larger roots with my chainsaw.  Ultimately, the answer was to just keep digging deeper around them with the skid steer and essentially slam the skid steer into them until the roots broke.

The largest tree was as expected the hardest to remove.  We somewhat expected it would break loose and leave most of the roots underground.  However, it did not and in the picture below you can see that the skid steer was used to dig almost three foot deep before the stump could be removed.

To my surprise, by 9:45 all the trees were removed and he was able to level out the land a little with the bucket of the skid steer.  Needless to say, I was shocked at what was possible with his skid steer.  

We spent the next few hours loading up the stumps and root pieces and dropping them off in the fenced area we call the garden.  We now have a burn pile there which we will burn once the wood all dries out.  For now, we have done way more than I imagined.  The project is really starting to look good now.