Dreams of owning a privite ski lake

[wolff supra21v]

A year ago we bought 40 acres with a lake on it with dreams of making it a ski lake. The only catch there was already a house on the lake that a friend owned and his property went about 10' into the lake. He was all about making it into a ski lake as long as it did not cost to much. (Well hear lately him and his wife decide the property was not for them)
So My wife and I signing a contract on his house and 5 acres today.
that will give us 45 acres, a nice house, and a lake with a lot of potential that we can turn into a ski lake. (and we own the entire lake to do what we want with.)

We are real nervous right now we current own a nice house I built in 07 that we have to put one the market yet. and we close on the new house in 60 days.
If I can sell my current house in the next 6 months and get what I want out of it, Than the real fun begins.
Building a ski lake it has potential to be 2500' long 300' wide with a slight kick around the 2000' mark.

here is some pics of the property
2269622697

here is some pic of the house and view off the deck
2269822699

[gpd005]

Awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[sivs1]

congrats, good luck!

[mcdye]

I can only dream.... Congrats.

[kaneboats]

Wow! Amazing. I hope it all works out for you. Would be cool to host ski camps in the summer and have some pros come in.

[mjr119]

What would you need to do to turn it into a ski lake?

[viking]

That is awesome !!!!!!!!!!!!

[wolff supra21v]

right now it is 1400' long and 600' of that is only 4' deep.
our goal is ski/wakeboard/(maybe surf lake)
We would like a slalom course still like to break the ski out. But I currently wakeboard a lot and my wife says she retired from wakeboarding and only surfs now.

We would extend it out to 2400 to 2500 feet and dig down deep as possible our goal would be shot for 12' settle for 8' to 10'.
I got a price of $225,000.00 for an excavation company to come in and dig and slope the banks. this would make it 12' deep and it would be a little more than half that to go 6' deep.

I own a construction company with a small track hoe and a high lift. I am really thinking of doing myself but I will have to spend about $100,000.00 on equipment that I could resale and get most my money back out of. But that is a lot of time I do not have with 3 little kids. I also getting sick of buying older equipment that when you use it you got to work on it. Or it is hard putting friends in equipment some people do not grasp the idea if it make a different noise or something is not as smooth it needs to be check out. if they would of just stop it could of been something simple.

[liquid_acid]

Beautiful house. Beautiful lake. Go for it!!

[mjr119]

Wow that's a lot of cash to dig out a hole. I'd give it a go myself. I do have a lot of experience with excavators and a buddy owns a large equipment rental business.

But anyways, that's awesome and I wish you the best. I think it will be worth it to dig it out as deep as possible. Especially if you plan to do any surfing on it. 8ft of water will destroy a good surf/wakeboard wake. I like to be in 15' deep or more water. It really makes a difference in the wake.

[trayson]

We've found that 10' is the make it or break it depth for the surf wave. anything less than 10' washes it out.


And I don't wanna pee in your cheerios, but what about the permitting and stuff?

Have you read this article???
http://www.waterskimag.com/features/2002/04/01/a-blueprint-for-building-a-private-ski-site/

[wolff supra21v]

My wife is a licensed civil engineer. We have been currently using the gps equipment from the company she works for to topo the existing lake. One of here friends specialize in lake design. So between my wife and here the design will be taken care of.
I been talking to the necessary channels on permitting. and it looking not to be much of a problem based that there is a lake already there. (so basically we are just repairing, cleaning and adding to the existing lake.) There is a few fees but nothing major. I have 3 excavating company's look at it and one build two different ski lakes in the area and they said not to even get them involved.
Besides that new lakes are not to bad in our area unless the dam is over 25' tall or a named creek. Than it gets bad you have to have to follow IL standards and everything has to be okay by them.

[trayson]

That's great to hear that it sounds quite plausible. Having your own lake would be a DREAM!!!!!!!!!!! I can't even imagine how cool that would be.

[maxpower220]

What is the source of the water? Have you looked into permits? On the site Ball of Spray, this topic comes up a lot. It's sad and maddening how the EPA wants to get into everyone's business.

[wolff supra21v]

The dream is getting closer!!!
We have a contract on our old house We close on the new house 9/30 and the closing for the one we are selling is setup for 10/15 give us 15 days to move. (my wife does not like the moving part) but it is a load off of me.
Plus on top of this one of the excavating company's that look at building the lake just bid a dirt job that needs a lot of dirt 1 mile from the new lake. If he gets it the lake build cost would come way down.

there is a lot of land run off all around the lake. on a hard rain the lake will come up 2' in less than an hour. (this is a little extreme so we are looking at doing addition overflow pipes.)

[trayson]

Damn, sounds amazing. Keep us updated. Quite jealous.

[wolff supra21v]

Lake build is starting to get real. I got a contract with a company to move 60,000 to 80,000 yards of dirt for the lake (they want good dry clay for another project). Based on our current lake design I need to move 120,000 yards of dirt. We Should have our final lake design finished in the next two weeks. Dirt is suppose to start being moved around the July 1st. Down fall is they want 6 months to move there portion of the dirt.
But we are working with them on that part because of the money savings.

Item I am taking on myself
1. Drain the existing lake
2. Move all the silt in the existing pond
3. Clean up the banks
4. Add in field tiles / silt ponds so lake does not silt back in as fast.
5. Do finial grading
6. install new overflow pipes and rework emergency overflow.

Progress
We broke the dam last weekend and should have all the water out of the existing lake by this weekend.
My construction company already owns a track hoe, 963 High lift, skid loader, and mini excavator.
I just bought a 6x6 articulating dump truck.
I have a second 6x6 articulation dump truck found on a local lot. I am trying to finalize price on.
Also just found out a guy down the road has a D7 Dozer he wants to get ride of so I am going to go look at that this weekend.
(on the dozer if the price and shape is not right I plan on just renting on of them.)

That would complete most of the equipment that I need.

Here is some pics from this weekend.

[wolff supra21v]

more pics

24336243352433424333

[wolff supra21v]

few more pics
243392433824337

[kaneboats]

This is truly incredible. I'll be in your neighborhood in September. May have to come check out the progress.

[aggietb]

This is amazing!!!

[mcdye]

Super Cool

[jtatexc]

Absolutely amazing!! I am green with envy right now! Kudos to you!

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G930A using Tapatalk

[viking]

I love this thread! Great project and enjoy following.

[zabooda]

Glad to see you got through the permitting. IMO, that in itself would be the hardest part.

[07STI]

Congrats...Keep the pics coming!

Where did all the water go from the existing lake?

[chester]

Very exciting for you! That is The Dream!
Looks like some farms nearby. Any plans for increasing/maintaining the water quality and preventing eutrophication?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[wolff supra21v]

Short answer not really.
We have talk about this a little bit. one thing I did notice this year was that the moss/ algae real grew fast and there was a lot of rain run off in the lake. I was just thinking that being we did not apply the typical chemicals to the lake that was the problem. I did make the comment that I thought the moss and algae was growing real fast thinking it was because of the farmers fertilizing.

talking with different people I was told that a lot of the algae and pond weeds grow due to half the lake being under 4' deep. (sun light hitting the bottom of the lake.

So with that said I am going to start doing some research and ask if you if you know anything naturally to prevent this?

One thing we are doing for silt is we are putting two silt ponds in on the large waterways that come into the lake and there is 5 small ditches that come into the lake that I was planning on putting dry dams and tiling to the lake. By doing this almost all the water coming into the lake will have to come through a tile or pipe.

[chester]

Short answer in return, no i do not. It is quite a complex issue and one that we are dealing with in Madison as well, so i don't think that lake depth is the final solution since our lake is 10,000 acres and 80 ft deep. now the few algae blooms we do have don't take over the whole lake, but they are still there. The silt ponds are a great idea to preserve the work that you do creating the lake!

That being said, i have dreamed of solving the problem and maybe you'll find a solution that works for you as each lake is different. It may likely be a combination of options that solve the problem. So the big problem here is phosphorous. You reduce the loading of that and you win the game. The options are to stop it from being applied to the land, stop it from entering your lake, or reduce it while in your lake before it spurs algae growth. Obviously the first is out, so option two would have you either change your water source from runoff to a well, although with a creek coming in so you'll still get some P but it would reduce the concentration. Another idea is to use the silt ponds as artificial wetlands at the inlet points to try and use up as much P as you can before it is in the lake. This is how most lakes stay healthy but the loading from our farming can be too great for just wetlands to solve the problem. Lastly you could treat/filter the water coming in, but this is an extremely cost ineffective option.
Ok, so say you can't prevent it from entering the lake, how do you deal with the P that is in there. One way is to reduce the residence time of the water. Getting new water in would reduce the opportunity for the algae to grow. A different idea is aeration, which i don't fully understand if/how it prevents algae growth. I've heard of a lake (google 42.917914, -89.475197) that was owned by a professional water skier and they used aeration. I don't know if that is all that they used, but as i hear it is the vertical mixing that helps. Also i'm sure the turbulence helps too.

Hope that gives you some ideas for you to research more. There is likely more options out there that i'm unaware of as lots of research is being done on this issue. And like i said, it may be a combination of things you try. Say you do nothing at first and see how it goes. if you have issues, try creating wetlands at the inlets to reduce the P. If that doesn't help, then maybe drill a well or add aeration. The downside to that phased design is it may take years to get it finally right.

As far as the physical design, I read on a different forum that the shores of Radar Lake were designed to absorb waves and not reflect them because of how they are sloped, may be a thought for you if you have enough room to slope your shores.

[chester]

Here is a story about the property i mentioned that gives some info on the lake. They use well water and aeration. pretty nice house too.

http://host.madison.com/wsj/news/local/luxury-bank-owned-home-with-private-lake-listed-for-sale/article_826d2f40-3b72-11e2-8652-001a4bcf887a.html

[kaneboats]

I read somewhere a long time ago about how they use excavated rocks along the shores to help break up the wake/waves. As everyone knows, a sea wall will simply reflect the waves. I'm sure there is a best way to get the shoreline to absorb as much as possible.

[zabooda]

I happened to check on one of the private lakes where I live and there is actually one for sale. I have a feeling that the lake is not deep enough for surfing as the reservation schedule used to be booked through most of the summer.

http://skipond.com/

http://www.kenmoreteam.com/listing/213604-331-hollingsworth-lane-basin-city-wa-99343/

[wolff supra21v]

that lake for sale would not last an hour in my area at that price even if it is not deep enough to surf. I will have more in my property house and lake when done. (probably going to have to sale a lot to afford it all).

For the sloping of the banks I talked to 3 different lake owner in the area and reading on-line about the wakes. and the flatter the bank the better so at the water line I have 12' of run to 1' of rise, with 10' into the water and 15' to 20' up the bank. the rest is going to be slope around a 3 to 1.

where there is banks we are not modifying because of house and trees we going to see how the hold up and rip rap where we need to.
The dam will be rip rap.

[chester]

I would think that sloping would suffice. I was just guessing that around an 8:1 slope extending ten feet both ways of the waterline so in my opinion your idea should work great. But I'm not a lake designer so who knows haha


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[viking]

I happened to check on one of the private lakes where I live and there is actually one for sale. I have a feeling that the lake is not deep enough for surfing as the reservation schedule used to be booked through most of the summer.

http://skipond.com/

http://www.kenmoreteam.com/listing/213604-331-hollingsworth-lane-basin-city-wa-99343/

I'd live there!!

[chester]

That is sick for that price! And there is a sister lake right next to it too!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[wolff supra21v]

We been digging on the lake this summer and spring so far we moved roughly 15,000 to 18,000 yards a dirt it has been a learning experience so far.
(I was told you are not stuck unless you have to bring in bigger equipment so can't say we been stuck but can say a couple time we spent 4 plus hours getting equipment out) Due to all the rain this summer and spring I have not moved as much dirt as I wanted to. Also the only two dry months we had the track-hoe and dozer was on paying jobs. (got to have these Helps pay for equipment).
The rail road contractor is behind schedule on moving the dirt they are suppose to be taking due to weather they will not be digging till the spring.
We started in a back cove doing some test digging to find out what to do and not to do. Right now we are working on digging big ditches through the existing lake to help with de-watering when it rains. Doing the on evenings and weekends is going to take a long time.
My wife's goal is July of 2017 my goal is the end of next year.

I add to my collection of equipment here what I have so far.
Linkbelt 210 lx trackhoe
CAT D5 Dozer
CAT 963 Highlift
CAT D250E Dump Truck
CAT D350E Dump Truck
Here is some pics hope you enjoy them

2515725158251592516025161

[wolff supra21v]

2516225163251642516525166

[wolff supra21v]

2516725168251692517025171

[wolff supra21v]

2517225173251742517525176

[wolff supra21v]

2517725178251792518025181

[wolff supra21v]

2518225183251842518525186

[wolff supra21v]

251872518825189

[liquid_acid]

Bring in the heavy civil trade, this is a pretty cool project. Use to deal with Hanson all the time as well which is now Forterra. Best of luck!!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[5:00]

Looks like it is getting deep!

[wolff supra21v]

yes we had to cut a ditch to the dam and through the dam to de-water the silt. We were digging 12' deep in the silt we still were not hitting a hard bottom. so we had to lay a clay road to get a cut to the dam. that will make that area over 20' deep. ( we will not move all this dirt, we will move what we can afford and have room for on the dam end. it is already close to 10' deep.

[5:00]

That is dam impressive :). How long do you think it will take to clear it. Pretty amazing to take this on.

[zabooda]

Amazing to pay some to take the soil and they will have someone pay them to deliver it. You should be able to connect with someone and split the costs.

[5:00]

It sounded like he was working around a companies' schedule to do exactly that?

[BigOrange]

Sounds like your wife schedule expectation to husband schedule expectation ratio is exactly the way it is at my house! Good luck on this awesome project. Are you anywhere close to those Herman brothers I see on TV's "Lake Life" ? You could probably be on TV yourself with this project.....but may not be on your interest list.

[wolff supra21v]

The rail road contractor is suppose to dig and hall the dirt away but they just want clay. So we are cleaning out the silt on the south end of the lake they are digging the north 600' of the lake for the dirt. and I got to finish digging and do final grades. I still will need to move around 100,000 yards of dirt myself to make everything work.

we have Calculated if the weather would stay clear and have good conditions it would take 50 to 60 8hrs days to dig the lake. We have log in about 15 true 8 hr days so far but the biggest problem is we dig for two days than it rains and than we spend 4 to 6 hour cleaning up the mess the rain makes and get to dig for another day or two. I know I could make real progress if I can work at least a week straight. (I get 3 weeks vacation form my regular job but this summer and fall I could not string more the 3 days off to dig mainly because of weather.

[5:00]

Keep up the good work!

[wolff supra21v]

Just thought I would give an update Not much digging this winter. We did tare down and clean up a couple building and a bunch of trees that need to go.
The rail road keeps dropping there numbers on the amount of dirt they need. and in about another month or two there project is going to be done. On the Plus side I got some of the silt dirt sold to another contractor for a couple of crossing for the rail over and under the local highways.

I went to an auction Friday that I should of not went to and end up with another toy to help on the lake build I could not pass it up for the price.
25430
this will make the third haul truck for the project.

[deerfield]

You ARE one-of-a-kind! Amazing project and equally amazing toys! Looking forward to more pics and updates. Thanks for posting.

[MMPRES]

Such an incredible journey so far! You have amassed a pretty impressive fleet of toys. Hope you have continued progress and look forward to the updates.

[wolff supra21v]

Been doing a little more digging. I am currently have a second track hoe out at the place. thing are starting to come together.
We tore out a bunch of trees.
We been building roads around the property with clay off the edges.
The silt in the existing pond is starting to get dry enough we can push it with the dozer. (just need a bigger one now)
The equipment been holding up for the most part only minor repairs so far.

The Railroad contractor fell through on the dirt they were going to take they missed there estimates by 80,000 yards. (the wrong way)

But I have picked up another contractor who's digging 10,000 yards for a bridge project. I also have a second contract needing 10,000 for a project he bid but is waiting on getting start. (Got to love the IL budget these are state projects taking the dirt so everything is shut down till the finalize a budget)

Here is some pics hope you enjoy
25872258742587525876

[wolff supra21v]

few more pics my wife been taking better pics with her camera these are just the quick ones I snapped off my phone.

2587725878258792588025881

[New Guy]

Such an amazing project! How far off do you think you are?

[viking]

Thats a S*(&t Ton of work. Cant wait to see the final product.
Thanks for keeping us in the loop.
By the way, might have to come stay a week with you to enjoy! gonna build a guest house?

[wolff supra21v]

My wife want to turn the grain bin into a studio apartment/ cabin for guest.
I would say we are about 30% on moving dirt but 10% done with the area for the boat path. We been working on what is considered the hard part moving the silt a majority of the boat path is more solid dirt to move.
Here is some more pics.

2605226053260542605526056

[wolff supra21v]

2605726058260592606026061

[wolff supra21v]

2606226063260642606526066

[wolff supra21v]

26067260682606926070

[trayson]

time consuming process for sure. That's a lot of dirt to move.

[RubenDecker]

Nice!! House I Liked it.

[MMPRES]

Bump. Haven't heard from you in a while. Hard to progress through the winter?

[johnsnowkornar]

Nice lake, nice house. I have also this dreams of owning a private ski lake. But when? I am waiting for the day. :P

[wolff supra21v]

We Ran Clear up to the week before Christmas than it got to cold and we quit for the winter.
We got a lot to done in the last couple months.
if you are looking at the lake from north to south we have the 6' more to dig for the north most 400' that will incorporate a turn Island in it.
and we have from 400' mark to the 1800' mark 80 percent done. Then we have to shave 4' out of from the 1800' mark to the 2600' mark.
there is a lot left to do.
New lake completion goal is by the end of 2018. I think this is very doable depending on how wet of year we have.

I lost a bunch of pics because my computer crashed and I did not have them backed up on my external hard drive.

I did find a cool 5' tall sign about 6' under the dirt here is a picture of it it was folded in thirds when I unfolded it just has rust lines where it was folded

Here is a few more pics. I am hoping to borrow a friends drone this week and fly it over what I currently have cause a lot of people been asking for updates.

26642266432664426645

[Ratherbriding]

How is the project coming along?

[wolff supra21v]

Well Lake building for 2018 did not go as plan. I took a new Engineering Job in march. This stop me from spending the extra time on the lake that I had planed. (Life got into the way of building the lake but it will happen with a wife and 3 kids at the age of 4, 5 and 8.) But we did a few cool thing around the project my 5 year old had a dirt birthday party and all the kids loved it
We got a lot done but still have a lot more to go.
We put in 3 silt ponds and 3 dry dams to contain the water flow into the lake.
New goal is the end of 2019 and hopefully wakeboarding on it in 2020.

I did add a 2008 case lx350b trackhoe and a drivable compactor to the construction fleet this year.

We came up with a potential name for the lake this year.

WTF - (Wolff's Training Farm or Wakeboard Training Facility) or it could just be what my wife and neighbors ask me all the time What The F are you doing.


Here is some pics through the year.
2793627937279352793427938

[wolff supra21v]

2794027939279412794227943

[Edo88]

Jesus that’s legit. Good luck with the project. How many acres will it end up being?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[wolff supra21v]

2794427945279462794727948

[wolff supra21v]

279502794927951

[wolff supra21v]

end of December we got a 2" rain and we had about 4' of water flowing through the lake bed.

27952279532795427955

[wolff supra21v]

It should be around 18 acres when done.

[New Guy]

That is so awesome glad to hear its still rolling forward. I'm sure the kids love it.

[CloudUO]

Awesome that we can follow the updates and get know how such a things are going on.
That's very curious.

[wolff supra21v]

Just a little update.
We had a rough year on digging with all the rain through out the year. I had to install floater tires on one of the off road trucks because it been so wet(every time we tired to dig it was just too wet).
On the plus side we just bought another 24 acres (we closed in December on) that is attached to our property which allows us to push the dam back another 500'. This will give us a total of 3000' ( a 2000' straight away a slight kick and another 1000' straight away.) should make it a little nicer yet.

we are currently on hold due to the weather and cold. (I am able to still sale dirt every now and than) I was able to sale 100 loads last week.


I figure I have two to three weeks of moving dirt in the core part of the lake than most of the dirt is moved.
I got about 1000' of bank to finish shaping.

We got a lot of trees to remove on the new piece of ground we just got.
then it will be dam building time.
Our goal is to finish it this summer and be skiing on it the summer of 2021.

Sorry for no pictures my computer or phone will not load them to the site any more and I am not able to see what pics I posted on here anymore also.

[MJHSupra]

Sorry for no pictures my computer or phone will not load them to the site any more and I am not able to see what pics I posted on here anymore also.

Someone else was reporting the same thing in a different thread - unable to upload.

[MJHSupra]

Makes me want to try to upload from my PC: error: Upload failed due to failure writing temporary file

[deerfield]

We got a lot of trees to remove ...

So, how is this accomplished? What are the steps? Does removal include the roots? What heavy equipment, if any, is needed? How / where do you dispose of the timber? Thanks!

[wolff supra21v]

I have a trackhoe for digging the lake. So I am looking at putting a thumb on the trackhoe for pulling the trees than we will load the logs on the off road truck and pile them to the side. I got a lot of family and friend that burn wood that will come and cut the logs up. Than burn the brush that is left. As for roots we will pull out what we can but if they are at the bottom of the lake we will probably will not worry about them.

I get in trouble a lot from my wife I can wipe trees out pretty fast with the trackhoe and she complains it takes many many of years to grow them back.

[Skovmanden]

Great dream!

[wolff supra21v]

I have not got to add pics and a long time and I just noticed it works now.

these are some older pics but gives an idea what is going on.


28638286392864028641

[wolff supra21v]

2864228643286442864528646

[wolff supra21v]

286472864828649

[wolff supra21v]

286502865128652

[wolff supra21v]

I figure I would give an update it has been a while.
The Dam is in and the Lake is starting to fill.
Am I done No I am not there is a lot of little thing to do to finish.
I am going to do another photo dump so you can see what we done the second half of the year.2926829267292692927029271

[wolff supra21v]

2927729278292792928029281

[wolff supra21v]

2928229283292842928529286

[wolff supra21v]

2928729288292892929029291

[wolff supra21v]

2929429293292922929529296

[wolff supra21v]

2929729298292992930029301

[wolff supra21v]

2930429303293022930529306

[SONIC]

And I thought I took on large projects.
Jesus this is the coolest thing I've seen yet!
Can't wait to see it finished and full

[MJHSupra]

Final filling?

[arsnlgunnr]

This is awesome! Looks like tons of work but the end result will be totally worth it [emoji1690]


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[jph3]

Such a cool project, been following... thanks for the updates! Much needed since its 10* and snowing :)

[Wdavid]

Awesome. Just Awesome. You and your kids are going to have a ball! Don't forget to stock it with fish once you get it filled, large and small mouth bass, blue gill, etc.

[Isaguel]

Sheesh, that's quite an ambitious project. Very cool. How big is it going to be when filled?

[wolff supra21v]

It started out around 18 acres and grew to around 26 acres. (right now for the boat I have a 2000' straight away with a slight kick and than a 1000' straight away.)
Than I have two coves that are 800' to 1000' I would like to put I two post cable system in one of them in the future.

Defiantly way more work than I imagined but it will be well worth it.
Two of the contractors that priced it is family friends and they said they were glad i didn't except their bid because I cleaned way more silt out than they were planning and they would of charged a lot more money. (on top of that being it was an existing lake no one would give a firm price because of the existing lake.

On the plus Side I been selling all the silt I removed as black dirt and got set up with one company if they take what the claim they need this last year and the next two years the lake will be paid for off the dirt I removed. (this doesn't include my and my brother's labor) but I was expecting not to make much off the dirt anyway.

[Scott-clt]

So awesome


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[New Guy]

So awesome to see this all coming together for you! I know its been along time coming.

[wolff supra21v]

We got about 3" of rain and it raised the lake level 4 to 5 feet. we got about 10 more feet to go. This gives us about 13' at the dam 10' behind the house and 2' at the far north end.

29403294022940429405

[996scott]

this is such an awesome project, thanks for the updates. Keep them coming

[SONIC]

Can't wait to see it once it's full and all greened up!

[wolff supra21v]

I cannot wait till the lake is full and it is summer time also. I still need to do a lot of work but it is getting close we need 9 to 10 more feet of water.
Here is a shot from the air of our lake one of our friends took a few weeks ago.
The picture is missing the dam and one big cove to the north by the dam.

29413

[SONIC]

I cannot wait till the lake is full and it is summer time also. I still need to do a lot of work but it is getting close we need 9 to 10 more feet of water.
Here is a shot from the air of our lake one of our friends took a few weeks ago.
The picture is missing the dam and one big cove to the north by the dam.

29413

That's just too cool.
Any idea on total cost? If not willing to share that's perfectly fine I'm just curious.

[wolff supra21v]

Right now i am sitting around $325,000.00 with labor, fuel, and equipment repair. (This does not include my labor or my brother's labor throughout the project.)(also a lot of cheap labor i had 4 Nephew's from the age 14-25 that help and I got away with paying $10 to $15 an hour cash.) and the first summer a lot of friends help for free but that only happen one summer.
Fuel was a big cost and i was way under budget I planned on $4.00 a gallon diesel and i would bet we average around $1.80 a gallon.
We broke the dam August 4th 2016 and we started to key the new Dam August 29 2020 and finished the dam 100% January 1 2021.
Other factors
I spent $200,000 on equipment that if I sale right now with the market I could get more than I paid for it. (so i feel like i am ahead on equipment)
I will sale $50,000 worth of equipment and keep the rest for a few years to clean up around the place more and i also have two more ponds to rework for a friend and a brother that will be paying jobs.

On top of that I got lucky this year and Sold About $100,000 worth of dirt. The company that bought the dirt wants the same amount next year and the following year. (But this will be questionable it going to a existing pipeline)I am hoping everything the government is doing doesn't effect this. They are trucking the dirt further than planed because the dirt is good. But they are worried about fuel prices next year. (This is not guaranteed if this falls through i will sale roughly $15,000 worth of dirt each year the next 20 years.

One of the biggest thing I learned on this project was It is a lot easier and cheaper up front to build a new lake then clean out an old lake. But by stock pilling all the Silt (black dirt) the lake has a potential of being paid for from the sale of the dirt.

[SONIC]

Right now i am sitting around $325,000.00 with labor, fuel, and equipment repair. (This does not include my labor or my brother's labor throughout the project.)(also a lot of cheap labor i had 4 Nephew's from the age 14-25 that help and I got away with paying $10 to $15 an hour cash.) and the first summer a lot of friends help for free but that only happen one summer.
Fuel was a big cost and i was way under budget I planned on $4.00 a gallon diesel and i would bet we average around $1.80 a gallon.
We broke the dam August 4th 2016 and we started to key the new Dam August 29 2020 and finished the dam 100% January 1 2021.
Other factors
I spent $200,000 on equipment that if I sale right now with the market I could get more than I paid for it. (so i feel like i am ahead on equipment)
I will sale $50,000 worth of equipment and keep the rest for a few years to clean up around the place more and i also have two more ponds to rework for a friend and a brother that will be paying jobs.

On top of that I got lucky this year and Sold About $100,000 worth of dirt. The company that bought the dirt wants the same amount next year and the following year. (But this will be questionable it going to a existing pipeline)I am hoping everything the government is doing doesn't effect this. They are trucking the dirt further than planed because the dirt is good. But they are worried about fuel prices next year. (This is not guaranteed if this falls through i will sale roughly $15,000 worth of dirt each year the next 20 years.

One of the biggest thing I learned on this project was It is a lot easier and cheaper up front to build a new lake then clean out an old lake. But by stock pilling all the Silt (black dirt) the lake has a potential of being paid for from the sale of the dirt.

Thanks for the info, that's really not all that bad all things considered.
Hell some folks are paying that for the boat to go in the lake!

[korey]

If you don't mind to continue to share - what regulatory issues did you have to tackle through this process? The water issues that came from building my little 30,000 sqft machine shop 5 years ago still have me squeamish of taking on something bigger! Albeit this was in "the city" (Lexington, KY).

Thanks for living the dream - It's safe to say most of us on here have a similar one!

[wolff supra21v]

I am happy with what I have in it but i will say it was a lot more work for my brother and me the I really planed. I wanted it done in 2 years. and it took 4 but we started at 18 acres and right now I am ballparking the lake at 26 acres.
We have not got a chance to use the lake but if you ask my wife she is have a hard time saying it was worth it. To her I missed a lot with her and the kids the last four years.
But what has me excited is my 10 year old daughter saying Dad do you realize I can wakeboard ever day this summer if I want. Also my other two younger kids talking about the lake and possibilities for the summer.

[wolff supra21v]

On Regulations I got pretty luck so far. I live in a rural County of IL that has not adopted a lot of codes/requirement. On the county requirements there were no permits required.
I also talk with IL DNR and I have an email stating being I was cleaning out an old lake and reworking the dam I did not need a permit. I had to fall in the guide lines still.
1. The main sticking point for lakes in our area is the Lake can not be over 25' deep or overflows have to meet Core Guide lines. (witch my overflow boxes are over design compared to Regulations.)
2. another thing you have to have permission to do is dam a named creek. to build a new lake this size is hard to do. (we got around this because it was an existing lake.
This all gets costly because you have to have engineering Stamped drawings. With Me and my wife being engineers we have a lot of resources with the correct information to design this and not have to pay anything. (one of our friends that has a lake said design and permitting was the worst part of their lake but it was more the county they live in that pushed the requirements.) They were talking this cost them about $75,000 plus over a year to get everything okayed. (and his lake partner was a lawyer)

One of my biggest concerns is I put in 6 large dry dams and 3 silt ponds close my property lines. Witch I am basically slowing all the water down coming onto my property. Trying to slow down erosion, Silt and chemicals getting into the Lake from all the farm fields around my Lake. With these I could back water up on their property in a heavy rain. Witch it does happen with a 2" rain in less than an hours time.
But some of these farmers has a 8 or 10" field tile that dumps out 2' from my property line. witch made bad deep ditches on my property.

But I can see this being a problem in the future.

[wolff supra21v]

We are 1' from full. Still a lot of work. I am trying to build a temporary Boat lift setup (i purchased a floating lift and trying to rig it up to work for this summer till I get my dock set up next year.
Here is a few pics. Next set of picture will have the supra in the water. (we have an old pontoon boat and we already have it on the water playing around.)
29555295562955729558

[wolff supra21v]

29559295602956129562

sorry pics are not up right I tried resaving them but don't have much time to mess with them this morning.

[SONIC]

Lookin good.
We need some drone shots!

[wolff supra21v]

I put the supra on the lake Two Sundays ago the lake is working great i have a 2000' straight away a little turn and 1000' straight away.
Turn island still need a little work. kind of tight. hopping to get the drone out next weekend.
banks look good and the wake clears out with no back wake.
I am supper excited about the lake. kids been riding every night they can.
I am trying to get the lift setup so I can leave the boat on the lake.



29633296342963529636

[wolff supra21v]

29637296382963929640

[bergermaister]

I'm thinking this should be re-titled "Dreams of Owning a Private Wakeboarding Lake"

[TXSurf4]

That is awesome!!!! Congrats!! Can't wait to see the drone pics.

[BigOrange]

Congrats man! Been following and now it’s great to see some pay off from that hard work.

[Branden967]

Awesome project. I envy just owning that much land....

Stupid question, did you name your lake?

[New Guy]

Congratulations! Putting the boat in the first time had to be such a huge rush. Enjoy it.

[SONIC]

Amazing.
you're going to have to fend off the locals with a stick trying to talk you into free pulls!

[GeorgeFell07]

this is literally my dream... congratulations! I'm so happy for you)