Happy New Year to all from Glensaugh. 2009 has opened on a high note as our planning work in 2008 begins to bear fruit.

We have received confirmation from SGRPID that our grant application has been approved, which will provide support funding towards the wind turbine, woodland planting, drystone dyke repair and public access and interpretation. The first three items fit well with our philosophy of setting Glensaugh up for a sustainable future while the public access proposal will provide a means of managing visitors to the property, who we hope will want to come to find out more about what we are doing as well as enjoying our local environment. Receiving this sort of news is like being told you’ve successfully bid for the Olympics: while applying for the grant seemed challenging, the real work is the delivery of the outcomes (excuse the jargon), and adhering to the programme timetable.

The drystone dyke pilot project (see photo) was completed on the day we received the good news about the grant application. The dyke replaces an earlier (and long time ruined) dyke on the same alignment. As well as providing shelter to livestock and the garden it has used up a lot of land gathered stone dumped at random along our field boundaries. The style of the new dyke is “Borders”, reflecting the origin of the builder (it should be familiar to those of you who knew Sourhope), excepting the three mid courses of roughly dressed granite which is more characteristic of the north-east. We now have to find a professional dyker to help us with the remainder of the job which is timetabled to be completed in 2010.

Chief Exec pays homage to award winning silage

Our third piece of good news was notification from the North of Scotland Grassland Society that we have been awarded second prize in the pit section of their annual silage competition. The analysis of our silage was very good this year, and the judges were also impressed with the management of the site and the livestock feeding systems. This is a reflection on the attention to detail of everyone who works at Glensaugh.

The weather has also cheered us up recently (if you accept that mid winter cold is good and healthy). A prolonged period of frost gave good skating ice at the Lochhills. Both lochs were frozen to a safe depth of about 4 inches and the surface was excellent.