Thanks for the comments everyone. I feel fortunate to land in such a great place. I've worked on it for years with my grandfather and now owning it is an entirely new experience. We've re-stocked the farm with a few horses and rented the 10acre field to a local farmer for alfalfa. Its a joy watching the younger ones roam around and enjoy nature.
Few more details on the pond - Grandfather and I built the covered bridge when I was 15years old. I hated the process at the time.... I've come to really appreciate the time we spent and product we achieved. 23 years later...the banks are little tight.... but its still standing. - The banks/basin of the pond is primarily blue clay. The basin goes straight to 6ft+ in most areas. This is a "know how to swim" pond. - The entire pond is surrounded by a dirt berm that keeps watershed from nearby fields from entering the pond. The water surface doesn't seem to accumulate much algae or bi-product. - I'm open to putting a powered aeration system of some type. We have 110V at the bridge. I've read through RC51's setup and looks like that could be an affordable answer. I'd need to learn more on how to cycle it through the spring/fall seasons though. - There's an abundance of Black Crappie in the pond. Consensus here says that's a bad idea for any well managed fish population. - There's zero structure in the pond today. That needs fixed.
I guess I'm still narrowing down how much I want to accomplish in a single season. I'd like to get the spillway repaired/replaced and add some structure. Sounds like that'll include draining the pond and having a fish fry:)
Weight limits come off in about 4 weeks. Then we'll roll in the backhoe and make some progress.
