Pond Boss Forums POND CONSTRUCTION Selecting a site What would you do?

I went through the same thing when I decided to move here. I never had the option where I'm from, so the idea of living on a lake in a nice house and my own dock had allot of appeal to me. I looked at quite a few homes and never found the one that I wanted to buy. I also love to hunt and enjoy the outdoors. Owning land was another desire of mine that I never thought was possible where I'm from. California was just too expensive for me, and where I could afford to buy, it was too far from my job, or a place where I could get a job to afford to pay for the land. In the end, I bought as much land as I could afford, built a small home on it and two ponds. When I was looking, my goal was to just find a place to live that I would be happy coming home to at the end of a days work. As the process went forward, that changed and I got the idea that I could develop the land into a business, which is my long term goal. Until then, I work the land , fish and swim in my ponds, hike my trails and hunt in my woods. It's all here and there's no need to go anywhere else. Living on a lake still has some appeal to me, but in reality, I couldn't afford enough land on a big lake to really feel comfortable. I hate loud noise and get annoyed at those who have loud boats. Especially when they feel the need to show off at all hours. My water skiing days are behind me and I enjoy seeing others fish more then actually fishing myself. On Sunday, my Father In Law brought out the new Youth Paster and his wife to my place to go fishing. She had never been fishing before, so when she caught her very first fish, that was a thrill for her and also for the rest of us. She caught 13 fish, all bluegills, and had a great time. Her husband, the Youth Pastor didn't catch a single fish, but ended up swimming in my big pond with his Lab and my Brother in Law. One of the Youth came along and also caught quite a few bluegill and one 4 pound channel cat. It was the biggest fish he'd ever caught and a new pond record. To me, this is what it's all about and I don't think would be possible if I lived on one of our local lakes for the simple reason that the day before, they went out on my Father in Laws pontoon boat to fish Lake Palestine. A 26,000 acre lake that he's fished his whole life. He knows the lake pretty good, but couldn't catch a fish to save his life that day. They had a nice day, but it wasn't anything compared to the day they had out here.

With your own land, you can make it any way that you want. There are more options, but also more work. It's a full time job just keeping the place looking like I want it, plus doing all the things to it that I still want to do. If you want to relax and spend your time fishing, then living on the lake would be better. If you like to do things to the land, make changes, build stuff and stay active, then owning the land is the way to go.

Good luck,
Eddie