Dreams of owning a privite ski lake

[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.)
IMG_0498.jpgIMG_0499.jpgIMG_0500.jpgIMG_0501.jpg

[wolff supra21v]

middle looking south.jpgmidldle looking North .jpgcove in front of house.jpghouse.jpg

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.



kids and boards.jpgkids in front of boat.jpgkids on the boat.jpgfamily boat.jpg

[wolff supra21v]

jon ridding 1.jpgjon ridding 2.jpgturn island.jpgkids on turn island.jpg

[bergermaister]

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