The least amount of water you can deal with the better. Worked on a ground water lake in Florida. Equipment worked in the water the material was like beach sand the pans picked up the material and hauled it off. But the pump still worked 24 hours a day. Most of the time equipment must be kept out of the mud and it can only handled with trackhoe and dump trucks. do not get it to big of a hurry to start with there will be plenty of time to rush once the dirt starts moving.
Oh how true it is!!!!!!!!!
I am surprised when I here folks like Eshhup mention that they worked on weekends or such. When it came to me, I felt it needed to be kept at it. My feelings is once you start pumping, and the work/time it takes to do, once its ready, get 'er done and don't keep redoing the work to be able to work again. I suppose this all has to do with how much water you have flowing in, size of equipment you have to work with, and multiple other factors. I was into the pond renovation by a year or so, and the one summer it just wanted to rain, rain, rain. Kind of gave up and did little chores to be prepared for next round. Next year came, I thought that I would get a good chunk done and I did. Weather was dry, and I thought to myself, if I stop now to finish next month/year, it will take twice as long( a month?) just to get it back to were I leave off. Sooooo, like you said Mike, MOVE THAT DIRT WHEN TIME IS RIGHT... and be prepared for that period of time.
Side note- the guy who gave me advice talked about a pond he built where the dirt removed was like a thick oil sludge because of the water content. He was dumping it at the edge of a hill and it would slide/run down the hill, kind of like lava. The hill had all sizes of trees on it. By the time he was done, the hill was cleared of trees. They all snapped off from the mud slides! I had a few truck loads that were this way. Dumped them, and they spread out 40' away! Couldn't go back to that spot for a while!
