Thanks David, Tripp and Cris. We have only lived here a few months and the water has gone down about a foot (it's been a fairly dry winter). The previous owner did tell me that when we had a several month drought last year, the pond nearly dried up. Also, there is a drain on the side that if the water level gets too high, the water will drain out that pipe and into the wetlands behind the house. I do want to avoid the sogginess so we don't walk in it, but the main reason is I want to redo the driveway which is close to the pond. You can see in the pics, the concrete is very cracked. My thought was if the pond wasn't leaching, I could bring in some soil with some clay in it and redo the driveway (after I have the old concrete taken out and recycled). I thought there would be no point in redoing the driveway if the soil was the same (saturated from the pond) and the new concrete would do the same and crack excessively when it settled. Is this me thinking in the wrong direction here? It seems like I've walked around ponds in Florida that aren't soggy like this, but that may be those are more retention ponds and not real ponds. This pond is flourishing with life and a very happy pond, so we do want to keep it that way.
