bz, why not something in the middle like a d4 high track?
we used a cat 320c excavator w/ a 4 ft bucket and thumb to dig and pile, and the d4 to move it out. although a wheel loader would have been faster in my situation, the dozer did the job.
two of us did the majority of work on my ~1 acre pond in a weeks time. i set up an account and rented from holt, they were excellent at responding to a couple breakdowns we had.
good luck.
