Thank you (and lots of others) for the food-for-thought on grading, dirt compacting, etc.
As for compacting: If I end up going the wheelbarrow route, I thought I'd provide a big plywood sheet and chairs for my wife and mother-in-law to sit on while they critique my earthmoving skills. Then I could move the board and chairs around periodically to help tamp down the dirt. Har har.
We have a lot that is approximately 45 feet wide and 106 feet deep. The back yard has 6-foot wood fencing around it that can be taken down in sections. The side yards are ~4 feet wide, so only wheelbarrows can work getting through the side gate. There is a public greenbelt running beside our property, with a paved walkway running from the street almost to the end of our back fence. The developer used this very walkway to run a Bobcat in and out of our yard and the neighbors' yards when they were laying the (inadequate) original topsoil and creating the somewhat drastic slope down from the center of our yard to our back (North) and East lot lines.
The slope runs about four vertical feet from center of back yard to the East fence, covering roughly 18 feet (making it a 22% grade?) The slope from center to North fence is probably half that steep. A three foot retaining wall along the Northeast corner (a 44x50 foot L-shape), then filling with the ~2000 cubic feet of dirt would still leave a gentler grade of approximately 10%. It's really just the Northeast corner and half-way back up the East property line that we want to fill a bit. No new dirt will come near our house, so the mice and bugs will have to find another entrance. Perhaps they should consider using the sliding screen door my daughter leaves open all the time.
We're still trying to figure out whether to use stacking concrete bricks or treated wood/railroad ties for the wall, and how to integrate the wall with the fenceposts. Our neighbors cut their hedging planks to fit between fence posts and nailed them inline with the fence line. I don't like the idea that the wood, treated or not, will degrade in the next 10-15 years. I guess stacking bricks, although longer-lived, will have some problems too, in addition to cost, i.e. breaking up the wall between fence posts, trying to find a way to sink the fence posts through the bricks, or run the wall inside or outside of the fence?
I suspect we can get away with running a Bobcat down the public walkway to get to our yard, but if I were to inquire, I have a feeling the city would require permits, grading plan, etc. Backing a dump truck down that walkway would no doubt draw some disapproval from neighbors and the city. Wheelbarrows down the walk would be no problem, and would avoid trenching up our (already in sad shape) grass.
Nat