The soil factor

What's under the ground is vitally important to what grows or is built on top of it. Most of this property has about 10 feet of fine loess type soil. There is a fair amount of clay, holds water quite well, in fact, too well. But the soil also dries to concrete hardness when no rain for more than about three weeks.. Under the subsoil, the bedrock is a variety of limestone.

Up until 15 years ago, the forested areas were mostly kept mown and clear under the trees with brush hog, and I suspect 40 years ago with cows. And the fields mowed to maybe 2 inches. As a result, the organic layer in the forested areas is usually only about 15 years old and is deep only where obstructions to water flow has let it pile up.

The western half is more steeply sloped and will benefit from a bunch of short contour swales between and amongst the trees. Particularly some that cut across existing eroded areas.
The eastern half has mostly less than 3% slopes and the problem here is water not flowing, but sticking around and making a muddy mess, particularly around the south side of the house where enough rain will cause seepage into the basement.
The south side of the house would make a great location for a contour swale, but not at all sure I want to create a water lens underground that close to the house.

Underlying rock type is mainly limestone. Water from well has a lot of lime in it.
approximate location of place is inside the star shape.
Karst feature frequency
approximate location of place is inside the star shape. Maybe some karst formations nearby, but I don't think anything is close to the surface here.

Geologic age
Approximate location of place is inside the star shape. Most likely the ground here is Mississippian geologic age.
Easements and buried services
The direct human impact on the soil is the underground artifacts. Everything except the electric (red) coming in from the right is underground.

overlay showing just the easements and buried services
This section had a much thicker Organic and Assimilation horizons.
geothermal_058_DSC02203-Edit

6 feet down
The side of the bottom of a 6' deep trench shows that the soil has been deposited in layers, with some chunky areas. Some of the coloring probably comes from the back hoe blade.
Putting in geothermal pipes
The excavation for putting in the geothermal system revealed a similar profile throughout the rather extensive area dug up. This largish area is where the two pipes from the house are hooked into the four feeder loops.

Soil profile near front yard
This is my guess regarding how to identify the soil horizons here.
leak in basement becomes water storage solution
This ditch needs to be widened to at least 3 feet and another 6 inches deeper. Then sheet mulched.

The topsoil is only a inch or two in this regularly mowed lawn area about to get a hugul kultur berm.
The contour at this location is straight enough that a nice neat trench can be dug. I think now that it should have been wider and deeper. Top soil was only a couple inches at most along here.
Failed perk test
The subsoil is very fine and holds water for days.
Bedrock in forest gully
The only place that has naturally occuring rocks is the gully in the forest the drains the lower pond. The sides are about 10 feet high. (the red flags mark freshly planted paw paw trees.