Welcome Marine,
glad you are back in one "peace"
Wisconsin is a great state and seems like a great place for a pond...LOL.
One thing we have found with our pond is that most ponds get mucky and they need maintainance. A service to provide both would be very popular. A while ago we contacted a pond muck cleaning service located in Central Wi and the owner, a very nice guy, was very booked, too busy to do anything with our pond for about a year(maybe). The cost was $1,750 a day to vacuum out muck. Dont know if he worked weekends but probably took the winters off...not a bad life and certainly the experiance could lead to other oportunities within the pond field. They use underwater type equipment to get to the bottom probably similiar to navy seal type stuff as they apparently need to lie flat on the bottom while doing the vacuuming. The spoil is hurled several feet and becomes good topsoil in a few weeks. Obviously they must have something similiar to a septic type pump to get the muck out so start up costs would need to be considered. In any event the pond business seems to offer many potential opportunities for sucess. Good luck and thanks foer your service.