I went up to the house about 1PM and there was a large hole in the area where the house will be. The dirt has to be dug out to 3 feet deep with all wood and rocks bigger than 6 inches removed, and then the dirt has to be put back and compacted. The area dug out has to be 10 feet beyond the house and deck borders. 
At the end of the day, I went back up to collect the chicken eggs, and it looked like this. Click on the picture to see the bigger version, you can see much better.