Good Morning Guys:

Thank you for all of your helpful comments, and especially fish for the beach link. VERY helpful.

To answer your questions, I already have quite a bit of water pooling up. This is 90% ground water. You can see how clear it is in some of the pics, where it is pooling up in shallow depressions:

http://i885.photobucket.com/albums/ac52/NHFamah/th_P1030259.jpg

http://i885.photobucket.com/albums/ac52/NHFamah/th_P1030261.jpg

The area beyond the large boulder on the left is where we are planning to put the spillway, because it is natural grade. The initial thoughts were to put the beach on the opposite side of the boulder, toward the camera.

http://i885.photobucket.com/albums/ac52/NHFamah/th_P1030262.jpg

That area near the front that is not excavated very deep is a ledge shelf. Beyond it, they were able to be quite a bit deeper.

Since the water level won't be very high as the ledge shelf runs into the shore, they build a retaining wall that I can landscape:

http://i885.photobucket.com/albums/ac52/NHFamah/th_P1030263.jpg

This is also the spot where most of the surface water will enter the pond. They made a spot for a little waterfall, and some rocks further upstream to catch some the debris:

http://i885.photobucket.com/albums/ac52/NHFamah/th_P1030264.jpg

Surface water flows along here. Though it is not running now because we have not had rain in a long time, it used to run on and off, seasonally and when we had rain. Now we grubbed out a channel for it to flow in:

http://i885.photobucket.com/albums/ac52/NHFamah/th_P1030265.jpg

And to catch the runoff from the hill, so that, hopefully, all of the water enters through the channel/waterfall:

http://i885.photobucket.com/albums/ac52/NHFamah/th_P1030266.jpg

And now, for the questions...any you KNEW there would be questions, didn't you???

1. What is the best way to deal with the ledge? In retrospect, I should have just dug the pond further down the hill and avoided the ledge altogether. Though with my luck, we would have hit another section further down and I would be in the same spot.

2. The location of the spillway is pretty set, since the guy from NRCS said it had to be on natural grade. But what about the beach? The view from the boulder side (left side) is much better than the view from the right side, so that was what guided me originally. But now with the ledge, I'm not so sure. Opinions?

3. I have boulders up the ying yang, so wherever the beach goes, I plan to construct a stone retaining wall to keep the sand in. Any different considerations for beach construction when using a boulder wall? Gravel? Sand? Underlayment?

4. Vegetation. This is the big question right now. Since I am going for maximum water clarity, I want to keep just about everything except for water out of the pond. This means no fertilizer/chemicals for the entire area leading down to the pond, nor around the dam. It also means keeping the washing of organic debris into the pond to a minimum. So...no mowing? I know I have to keep the dam somewhat trim to keep trees and large-rooted plans from interfering with the integrity of the dam, but as for the hill leading down to the pond, I want to avoid mowing as much as possible, since the cutting will wash right into the pond. So what to plant?

I just want to thank you all again for your time and insights. My contractor is not exactly a "pond guy," but with your guidance, we are both learning a ton.

Backstroke