Listen to Yardvaark. Last spring we rented a dingo to move earth around to level out a playset area on our sloped backyard. My husband is a handy guy, but there is a learning curve and it was hard work. We later learned that we could have hired a landscape crew to do the leveling (and more) for less than our cost to rent the daggum dingo. Lesson learned.

You're better off leaving it alone and saving up to have it done well and done quickly by a pro. Side note: tree removal costs really add up. When we bought our house I loved the trees, almost four years and $8000 in tree removal and care later I appreciate what a hidden cost they can be.

I wouldn't remove another thing until I identified everythng you have. You may be taking out choice trees, shrubs and groundcover. Make ample use of the "Name this plant" forum. Easy to post a picture and get answers often in minutes. I would also be very wary of what you're doing with the plant removal and potential grade change. It looks like you have created a bare slope aiming water runoff right for your foundation or cellar. Yes, tree work is expensive but you will get much smarter at it. Many of them can be felled yourself, especially when smaller. Some can be dropped and left for you to cut. If you burn wood, the hardwoods are valuable fuel. The softwoods like the pine you removed are good only for mulch and screening views (stacked). You can learn to prune. You now know the cost of tree removal. Planting new trees can be just as expensive if you hire labor to plant large specimens! It takes years of nurturing to grow a mature tree. So my advice again is to SLOW DOWN. Not to be a wet blanket...

Thank you Yardvaark, benjesbride and kitasei for your thoughtful
comments.

I guess I was thinking I would need rocks to hold back the dirt
but I'm glad to hear that plants would be able to do the trick.

I will take your suggestion and get a few quotes from landscaping
companies about grading the land away from the foundation. If it's too expensive
for our current budget, we might just plant some grass to try to control the
runoff until we can afford more extensive work.

I am in complete agreement about the tree / plant removal.
We do want to be very selective with what we remove, not only because of
the cost but because of water absorption & hill stabilization. We did take the pine tree down by ourselves
but otherwise we have not taken any other trees or plants out. We’ve mainly been filling bags with dead brush
/ leaves and cutting up already downed trees and branches. If any of those larger trees need to come down
I think I would have to hire it out.

I think the place for you to start is in creating a PLAN VIEW DRAWING of the back yard. It would start out with a 'base plan' ... a drawing showing existing features: house footprint, tree trunks (just the ones in the front row,) lot lines and a dashed line representing toe of slope. After you create that drawing, make a copy on which to sketch out whatever work you want to figure out for the future. Mainly, it will probably be patio or deck and possibly walks. Determine where you want these things to be and their size. I suggest you work out a basic concept and then return here for comments and suggestions.

In figuring out what to do with water that comes off of the hill, it's likely you'll want to split the flow so half goes left and half goes rights. Since water doesn't turn on a dime, you'll likely want a swale that, more or less, forms a large arc around the back of the house. It is possible that a low retaining wall will be useful to you.

Thanks Yardvaark for the suggestion on the plan view drawing. That seems like a great opportunity to pause and think through what we really want. I'm going to start there.