Thanks, fish. I was advised against compacting by our local NRCS person, who came out to view the site. He said compacting would make sense in other parts of the country. But here in NH, and at my site specifically, there is so much ground water percolating up to the surface that you don't want to retard it by compacting. It is filling pretty quickly without rain! I feel very lucky.
I certainly would listen intensely to advice given by local knowledgeable people and organizations. With having said that, if the ground water percolates so well in this area it would seem that as you dug the pond it would fill with water as its dug. Has that been the case?
