Hi Bob,
Good work with the USGS aerials! With these photos and some inexpensive surveying software, you can probably avoid going the GPS route, and something very hard for anyone to dispute. If you have the legal description of the property boundary, enter all of the calls into the surveying software. I used "Plat Pronto" by Muncy software. It was about $100, downloadable, and easy to use. Once you've got the boundaries all entered, the software will do automatic "closure" to confirm that your legal description is accurate. This essentially confirms that the calls bring you back the exact starting point after traversing through each and every call. Now print out the resulting plat. Now, SCALE the plat so that you can line up a known segment (as in along a road) with your aerial photo. You can scale the plat extremely precisely, so that it lines up exactly. Once you've got the scaling exactly right, print it on a sheet of clear mylar. Presto! Your exact, legal property boundaries overlayed on an aerial photo. This is how I "re-surveyed" my place, with nearly 200 calls traversing extreme woods/ravines/etc.
Good work with the USGS aerials! With these photos and some inexpensive surveying software, you can probably avoid going the GPS route, and something very hard for anyone to dispute. If you have the legal description of the property boundary, enter all of the calls into the surveying software. I used "Plat Pronto" by Muncy software. It was about $100, downloadable, and easy to use. Once you've got the boundaries all entered, the software will do automatic "closure" to confirm that your legal description is accurate. This essentially confirms that the calls bring you back the exact starting point after traversing through each and every call. Now print out the resulting plat. Now, SCALE the plat so that you can line up a known segment (as in along a road) with your aerial photo. You can scale the plat extremely precisely, so that it lines up exactly. Once you've got the scaling exactly right, print it on a sheet of clear mylar. Presto! Your exact, legal property boundaries overlayed on an aerial photo. This is how I "re-surveyed" my place, with nearly 200 calls traversing extreme woods/ravines/etc.