ed, i'm not a pond expert by any means, but i personally think you paid quite a bit for you 3/4 acre pond! 8000 bucks seems pretty steep for that size pond unless you had to haul in clay or add bentonite etc. but if that 8 grand is just for the dozer fee for about 124 hours of work, i just wouldn't think it would take that long to build a 3/4 acre pond. I built a 7 acre pond, 25 feet deep at the deep end, a dam with an estimated 18-20 thousand yards of dirt, and some extra stuff like dozing some feed plots, a road, removing the old road, getting rid of some old trees, all for about 38-40k. the initial estimate for a 4 acre pond was 15 grand or so, and they got to that point at 13k, but i went a head and made it bigger. so, depending on your variables, i'd check around with other folks. hopefully you didn't get an inexperience dozer guy/lake builder who still charges the same as those guys who doze roads or trees. 85/hr seems steep, but maybe that is the going rate in that area. check around and ask the pros on this site. good luck. mark
