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.
Runner ducks
This morning we set off over the mountains to Kilkeel to fetch home some Indian Runner ducks – 4 ducks and a drake (we hope) who are just 2 days old, and have temporarily moved in with our Hubbard chicks, who are just a few days older.
Restoring a gate
This locally made gate came from our kind neighbours Fiona and David, and though of considerable age, is incredibly solid. It is likely made by the Walkers of Ballyward, who have blacksmithed there for generations.
The gardens erupt into life
The growing season is well under way, inside and out, and we’re running to keep up with all the growth.
From the air
It is always interesting to see the place from a different point of view, and so here is a little bit of wobbly footage from our micro drone. It is very tiny, and so far efforts to fly it have resulted mainly in it crashing, but here’s our first view of the place from above.
Building a pallet yurt
Occasionally I am let off the farm for good behaviour, and so on Sunday I set off for Co.Wicklow, and Castleruddery Organic Farm to learn how to make a yurt from pallets, with ‘Rubberband’ Ray Edwards. Ray is an inventive guy, and under his excellent tuition, our group learned how to make an extremely sturdy yurt.
Sheds come and go
We are now starting our fourth year here at Lackan Cottage Farm, and what seems like an endless series of building projects is at last coming to an end. The cottage refurbishment, polytunnels, compost loo, stables, the little cottage, outhouse, woodshed, bike store, paths, ponds, wind turbine and solar arrays, and most recently the rebuild of the old hay shed into a workshop and bigger hay shed.