Well

It seems this is a fine place to dig a well. Interesting how much water is on the E/L site.

Josh and my dad, Barry Hankins

To get a feel for the groundwater, stratification of soils, top soil layer and make up of deeper layers we did two things:

First, we hired Greenbelt Consulting. Elliott, a blackbelt in land management issues, was able to identify the existing problems regarding the land.

Second, we dug a test hold. Digging the hole in the earth took the guess work out of what we would find when we progressed on to digging the pond.
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We knew the land was saturated from previous observation but it was surprising to see just how quickly the hole filled up with water even though it hadn't rained in several days.

At about 30" we found what we were looking for. A layer of sand and gravel about 3/8" thick with no fines. They either were washed out with the migration of water or weren't present during deposition. There is clearly a thin flat creek running under the entire site.

The next day, the hole is full of water, right up to the liquified layer. The problem here is cancerous as the newly released water, once contained in it's own layer, is now exposed to more soil with a larger surface area. This soil begins to saturate and sluff off until soil over 3' away is soft and muddy.

Knowing we were there for restoration and not a Monster Truck Mud Bog Flaming Tractor Rally, we opted to keep the hole and water contained and undisturbed until we were ready to dig the pond.

Interesting foot note: We did have an orange tractor and a 4-wheel drive truck on site.