Appreciate that info, that may help me as I get into this project... When we originally dug the pond, we used an earth mover and scraped the pond shape until he got down to the water table and water started to seep back into the pond area over night, then we decided that we had gone far enough. Knowing the water table takes time to seep to fill the void, I think with an excavator we should be able to move dirt fast enough to stay ahead of the water as long as we don't stop moving. I just don't want to get stuck as we try to do that... My pond isn't very big and I'd like to get the deep spot towards the middle rather than near the sides of the pond so I was kind of hoping to find an idea about a way to spread the load far enough that the excavator wouldn't sink... Been wondering if pallets or something that we could drive the excavator on might spread the load enough to keep it from sinking into the soft bottom... Anyone have experience trying something like that? Thanks Jeff