Aaaand – we’re back. Let’s just pretend that the yawning gap between the last post and this one didn’t happen. A lot has happened here at Lackan and now that 2026 is upon us, it feels like we are moving into a new phase. Anyone who has followed us for a long time will know that pre covid we ran a lot of courses, there were people around all the time, and it was generally busy. Then of course it stopped in 2020 and we never really picked it up again. Then my mum was very ill throughout 2023-2024 and sadly died last year in 2025 so its been a difficult time for all of us here.

Since then, we started Off Grid Kit, which was remarkably successful but which took over all our time. Now we’ve decided to have it take a less prominent role, and to go back to focusing more on life here, which ultimately is the most important thing and which as any smallholder knows, demands attention.

So, we’ve given Birch Cottage its own website, with its own blog so that we can keep Lackan stuff separate, but linked. In 2026 we will be bringing some of the veg garden back up to production – we only used about a third of it last year. Also our big Polytunnel has now gone two winters without a cover and so getting it re-covered is a priority.

The other big job that is pressing is trees – all those little tiny things we put in 14 years ago are now pretty big, and it’s time we thinned them out. Its affecting our growing spaces, and the firewood will come in handy.

We upgraded our woodstore too, the one that is attached to the house. Now it’s actually part of the house and built in a much more rodent proof way so hopefully we will be seeing less critters this winter.

The zone0 permaculture garden outside our earthship conservatory

We did some great projects over the last year. The space right outside the conservatory is now a veg garden where we put all the things we need regularly – it’s our Zone zero in permaculture terms. It’s south facing and that really makes it an ideal spot. Its one of those things we probably should have done a long time ago.

The covered timber reciprocal frame roundhouse with a canvas roof that is in our woodland with seating and a fire pit

The other one was the fire pit. Now it’s primarily there for Birch Cottage but we’ve used it a fair bit, and it was a great excuse to build another reciprocal frame structure. We had a canvas roof made for it, and now it has power, so its a really usable space.