Frogholler, thank you for the skimmer idea as I fab'd one out of 1x2's since my welder isn't set up for aluminum, but it's working great. I added a photo of it and also the rope idea that I'm just getting put together. I just need to add the floats and put it to work. I've got 2 acres and a ton of DW so we'll see how it works.
Last Monday I got the aeration system up and running and up to 8 hours on my startup. Lots of work, having fun doing it and hoping for a good recovery on a good old pond!
But thanks again for the great idea on the box-skimmer!