Birch Cottage has a new website of its own
Visit the Birch Cottage website to bookWelcome to Lackan Cottage Farm
We’re Steve and Claire Golemboski-Byrne, we live here off grid with our daughter, our dog, cats and horses. We make all our own energy using wind and solar, grow as much of our own food as we can (it varies widely) and have used permaculture design principles to help us create a great place to live.
Here on the website you’ll find stories about the projects we’ve undertaken – what works, what doesn’t. You can come stay in our guest cottage – Birch Cottage and we will show you round, or maybe you just want to find out how to do some of this stuff. Either way, welcome.
Willow basket making – Saturday 1 September 2018
Before plastic containers and even cardboard boxes became common, the woven basket was used as a container for literally everything. Able to be made into all sizes and shapes, limited only by the imagination of the basket weaver, the basket was part of everyday life....
Thank you all
As always here at Lackan Cottage Farm, it was people who made the year memorable, and helped us to achieve so much. A huge thank you to all the volunteers who came and gave their time - it was a pleasure to meet you all, and great new friends have been made. To all...
Roofing for the DIY renovator
Prior to landing at Lackan, I’d never re-roofed a house – let’s face it, its not something you do every day. Throughout our search for a house, my primary selection criteria was ‘is the roof straight’, and on that basis, this cottage was winner. There are two cottages here, and on one we kept the old corrugated roof, for reasons of budget and fear, and the other we re-roofed, having a bit more money and confidence. Hopefully this post will be of use to others who are wondering what to do with their old cottage roofs.
Birch Cottage Gift Vouchers
The ideal present – a Birch Cottage gift voucher. Available in £10, £20, £50 or £100 these can be redeemed against the cost of any booking at Birch Cottage made through our website during 2018. Just quote the code when you book. We are selling these through our Lackan Cottage Farm online shop, where you can pay securely online using a debit or credit card, or paypal.
Talking about building restoration on the telly
Today we had the pleasure of welcoming the crew from Animo TV, and presenter (and architect) Hugh Wallace, as part of filming for a new RTE series about restoring old buildings. One of the restorations they are following is a cottage similar to ours, and so they came...
Off grid wind turbine repairs
When we heard that a hurricane was coming to Ireland, we were convinced that we were terribly well prepared. As seasoned off grid people we really should be. In the event, the wind here wasn't as bad as we expected. Unfortunately we still didn't get away without some...