We needed to level out the garden so we could get our deer fence up, and in order to do that we had to bring in a good amount of dirt. On the far corner of the garden we had to raise it about 3.5'. Lucky for us we also want a pond, and had a perfect source of dirt to level the garden area, and eventually the entire back yard.

This is after about 6 hours of tractor work:
http://img641.imageshack.us/img641/3594/pondworkday1.jpg

http://img204.imageshack.us/img204/7430/pond2.jpg

It doesn't look like much, but where the cedar is (far right) to the chair on the left was filled with brush, small trees, etc that were cleared out. Then that area was leveled off, I probably got 20+ buckets of dirt from that area alone before I even started on the pond hole itself.

The hole itself was done entirely with the loader too, lucky for me this location was shady, in between two mountains, and still relatively moist! In, and out of the hole I went with the tractor utilizing the loader being ever so careful not to make the hole too steep to high-center my backhoe/brackets.

When I get time and a tractor to work more the pond will be dug out to the right of wall on the far side more, and about 10' toward where I was standing when I took the pictures, and of coarse deeper.

The garden got level, and it was time to return the tractor (rental), so the pond is on hold until I can find a great deal on a tractor to own our own. (Garden pics coming soon)

This was all done with a 40HP tractor. Probably the smallest one I would ever consider without going insane... we are looking to buy a 45-52hp since from the pond to the garden is all up hill and it barely makes it up with a load of dirt!

Source of water for the pond will be the natural creek that goes through that area in winter, and a 2nd well about 85' higher in elevation, and about 750' (or more) to the right. The end-goal is to have 2x2600g water tanks, solar/12v well pump, and gravity feed the pond. If we are lucky there may be enough pressure to use the water for the garden too w/out requiring a booster pump.. time will tell as purchasing a tractor and all the above is a lot of money. Most expensive veggies ever! L O L