Rod-

Thanks for the reply. My operator just ran over it with various machinery during the excavation, its pretty packed in.
The small rock we got into was only during digging the final trough and pretty minimal. We pulled them out and packed the dirt back in around them.

Im on the fence about how to proceed just because I don't have the experience to assess if the pond will likely leak or not.
Based on how gummy and packed in the clay was just to get out we feel pretty good about it, but again....no real experience here.

I should probably just take your advice and start filling and see how it shakes out. Good point on the drying out of the clay.

I will get some photos posted up soon!

best-
Jake