Wow! Thank you for all of the positive reponse! Great ideas!
Zone 4, Red River Valley, no flood plain, just shallow water table, super flat and no drainage/outlet...I know thats a good thing if properly managed.
There are lots of boxelder maple, birch and couple willows and conifers(probably white pine), im surprised previous owners didn't plant more fruit trees, only some crabapples. I'll have a lot of fun identifying this spring;) Letting one year go by is a great idea, but the need for drainage will be addressed by this fall out of necessity for my family's sake...Ill be planting lots of things this spring though; plums, chokecherry, apples, serviceberry(if i can find em), buffalo berry, various pines, aronia, every fruit tree and bush I can grow and then some;)
I definitely want to embrace the water, but I dont know how to create a "stream" to a pond I'll dig, when there is no grades to work with. Would like to set up a solar water pump to keep water fresh and circulating for fish etc, but that'll be very impractical come winter, unless I use heat somehow...There is plenty of wind always for alt. power projects in the future.
I will research all of your suggestions including the chinampas, thank you so much!
