We just finished draining our lake to scoop out the muck. It's close to three acres and the guy who did it for us first dug out a hole in the dam in stages with a backhoe and then came back this year and dug it out big enough to get his loader and dozer through the hole.

It was a year before he could get his equipment back down in the deepest part. He came out a few times over that year during dryer periods and would work on the areas adjacent to the deepest muck which seemed to help that area dry out more. He said he would have preferred to let it sit for two years but this past week he was able to run his equipment through the deepest part without issue and get a lot of it out.

He originally wanted to open the dam and then push all the sloppy muck out the hole while it could flow easier but our dam is close to the property line and our neighbor was not going to agree to that. We had to drain the lake in stages to be careful not to make too big of a flow to where it damaged our neighbor's property or released muck onto it. I contacted the DNR prior to getting the work started and they said it would be a legal issue should any muck laden water make it to a public stream about a half mile away so that was a concern as well.