self sufficiency Archives - Lackan Cottage Farm - Permaculture off grid smallholding

Thoughts on heating systems

by Steve Byrne | Sep 11, 2021 | renewable energy, self sufficiency

I get asked about heating a lot. What’s best, the most cost effective, simplest, efficient. All that. So this is a collection of my thoughts based on all the various things we’ve tried (and we’ve tried quite a few). So far we have (or have had)...

Being prepared

by Steve Byrne | Oct 29, 2020 | homesteading, renewable energy, self sufficiency

The typical image of ‘preppers’ is of heavily armed Americans living in compounds in the mountains, with stockpiles of food and ammunition, or their close relatives the ‘survivalists’ who are kitted out ready to live in shelters in the woods,...

Let there be light

by Steve Byrne | Oct 19, 2020 | self sufficiency

For the last eight years we’ve been fervently letting everything grow, more or less unrestricted. So for the first time this summer it became really apparent that it was time to rein things in a bit, as the vegetable garden was becoming darker and darker, and...

Wood pellet boiler adventures

by Steve Byrne | Nov 22, 2019 | off grid, renewable energy, self sufficiency

Sometimes we’re just cruising along doing our thing and a project arrives out of the blue. In this case it came in the form of our largest freecycle ever, courtesy of Leo, who had spotted it and decided it was too big a thing to deal with. ‘It’ is a...

Autumn wines

by Steve Byrne | Nov 7, 2018 | food, self sufficiency

So far this year we’ve made wine from elderflowers, gorse, blackcurrants, redcurrants, raspberries, and rhubarb. Now that autumn is here, we have a new selection of crops from which to conjure wines. Although most of our peaches were made into jam, enough were...

Early summer in the tunnels

by Steve Byrne | Jun 16, 2018 | permaculture, self sufficiency

This growing season was slow to get going, even in the polytunnels, but after all the warm weather, it’s all growing like mad. Today we’re having a look round with Claire at what is coming on in the tunnels. We’re new to this film making thing so bear with us.