One of the biggest issues I've come across with hiring heavy equipment is the billing process. Make sure you have it in stone how you're being charged. If it's an overal price on the whole job, have all the overuns laid out before hand. If it's an hourly rate, make sure you know when the clock starts and stops. There are more tricks and horror strories than you'd want to know about stunts that have been pulled. If you stay on top of it, you shouldn't have too many worries.
Since all your doing is a dub pond, or a hole in the ground, there's not much to it. Determine how deep you want it, where you want the spoils and how to shape it. Things like steepness of the bank, undewater structure and the overall size.
Nothing a good sized dozer can't do in a few days to a week, depending on how deep you go and how far you want the soil spread.
Eddie
