After talking with my Dad, talking it over with Bob, and considerable angsting, we have a new plan for the back yard.  It involves more work and a much longer timeline.  We're not going to till - there is always the possibility of doing more harm than good.  Okay, maybe probability.  So - no tilling.  However, one thing that tilling would have done would be to deal with the moss.  I've read that grass isn't going to sprout unless it has soil contact - which is wouldn't have in our current situation, because we have a solid coating of moss in large portions of the yard.  Experimentation tonight showed that the landscaping rake and a lot of elbow grease will pull the moss up so that it can be shoveled into the wheelbarrow and taken to the compost heap.

So the new plan is to rake, then lime, then seed.  Then every year we'll add topsoil to the low spots and reseed them until eventually it's reasonably level.  Everything I read tell me that this is the proper way to level it out, but it's not the instant gratification that I want.  However, it should get me a green space for my daughter to play on.

It's not much of a plan, but it's mine.  Even better - this year it's cheap!

Tomorrow I'm going to try to get a bit more of the gardens cleaned out.