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.
Well well
You may recall that three years ago (it might be four) we realised that we had a well in the garden, although it turned out to have been used as a drain for a long time and took a lot of cleaning. Anyhow, clean it we did and at the time it passed the environmental...
Jam magic
Mid september, it is still strangely warm, things are fortunately still ripening, and our nectarines are finally edible. They have a habit of dropping off the tree the very second they are ready, so you have to be constantly on the lookout for them. We're eating the...
Farewell summer
Electric Octopus playing Turnipstock 2016 from Lackan Cottage Farm on Vimeo. While we weren't looking, the summer came and went, but we saw it out in style at the Benraw Creative Convivium up at the Turnip House. Our tipi went on tour, the sun shone, and the...
Permaculture Gathering
Well this weekend was the All Ireland Permaculture Gathering, held at Cloughjordan Eco Village in Tipperary. The whole thing was really interesting, and despite almost continuous rain for the entire weekend, I had a great time and now that I’m back am itching to get on with all sorts of projects.
Two weeks of wwoofing
It has been a busy month so far here at the farm – Felix has returned to us from Germany for a second time, and last week we welcomed Uni from California. Much wood was chopped and stacked, and the woodstore is almost completely full – it is good to be able to see the woodyard again.
The big tidy
Blog posts have been a bit thin on the ground lately, mainly because I've been running around like a man with his hair on fire. Our little cottage is complete, we're just gathering up all the things that Tourism NI like you to have, and having friends and relatives...