Rainman - don't get me started, I only just met you guys, and I don't want to go into politics! I'm the one who scrimped and saved and sacrificed to buy this land, and I will be GDed if some walking clipboard is gonna tell me I can't have a fishin' pond on it! This is a pretty big issue locally, as there are a lot of wetland around here. I know a guy who lost $1 million worth of property because some beavers took a liking to it. Well, not lost exactly - he still gets to pay the taxes on it, he's just not allowed to do anything else with it. The key is DESIGNATED wetlands. Apparently, they do a fly-over every now and again, and if they see 12.5 acres of "wetland" plants, you get a letter in the mail informing you that you can never use that plot for anything. That's one reason for a dug pond - you give the water someplace else to go so the wetland plants die off, and you stay off "the list". Not that this is why I am doing it - I've been daydreaming about "The Pond" since I got out of the Navy, but it's definitely in the back of the mind.

Bill D: You and Bill Cody have got me worried about this. I've got a couple of ideas though. Like I said, I could dig it in a few stages, with mini-ponds that are small enough for the pump to keep up with. Another possibility: I notice in my test hole that the water isn't quite level. It is a little higher on the west side of the hole. This means I've got a little downhill on that side, so I was thinking I could build a temporary sluiceway at that end. That way, if the water gets ahead of the pump I can open the gate and get rid of the top 2 or 3 feet.