I have been snooping around this site for 3 months getting information and thinking and dreaming. I have also been talking to local conservation folks and family as well as calculating, estimating and drawing and stepping off areas and starting over LOL. At the end of the day I still want a pond in spite of warnings about how hard they are to maintain, how they become scum buckets, how they are full of poison water from surrounding fields and other nightmare negatives.

I live on the acreage my grandparents bought in 1907. They built all the buildings that still exist - a barn, shed, garage and house. I grew up here and raised my kids here. They are all in college or beyond, and I plan on staying here until ??. The building site is supposed to be 5 acres, but slowly the surrounding fields have taken it to 4.3 acres. My family owns and farms the surrounding 120 acres, rotating corn and soy. I have a rectanglar property with a conifer wind break on the west. It never grew on the NW of the property because it was always too wet (found this out from learning soil types from NRCS). A natural watershed of about 40+ acres drains to that NW area with clay tile that drains MUCH more than that. The tile is about 20 yards from my building site on the north and is about 4 feet deep, maybe less. It heads SW after it gets past my building site. There is a 4 foot drop of my property from the middle of the site to the west edge, which is about 100 feet, so pretty flat.

I am thinking of a pond on the NW corner. I want it for fishing and swimming, thinking of between 1/2 to 1 acre. Obviously this would be excavated. I have an idea from conservation to divert the tile above the pond to keep pond full, and reconnecting below the pond. Water level is high, 3-4 feet normally here. I also have an unused well near the site.

I know I have clay because we dug 20 years ago near the barn to bury the silo, and it was full of water all summer LOL.

I have read that no more that 25% of the pond needs to be 12 ft deep for fish to overwinter in my area, but have no idea what to plan for the rest or even if this is accurate.

I also don't have any idea of who to choose for contractor. Lots of people says they can build ponds, but based on what I read here, that just isn't true. What is the value of references if each site is unique? Do I just get bids? How do I get bids when I have no firm plan?

So that is why I decided to join in. I need more help! Fire away...