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.
I’m no expert, but….
So twice this week I've had conversations with people who said something along the lines of "Well I'm no expert but really solar isn't much good here in Northern Ireland because unless its really sunny they don't work and its never really sunny here so why bother....
Amazing reedmace
In researching what type of reeds were best suited for our new reedbeds, I discovered that the humble reedmace - or Bulrush as many people know it, is a quite remarkable plant. It is hardy, frost resistant, likes wet ground, and can remove high levels of toxins from...
Horizontal flow reedbeds
Horizontal flow reedbed All the water from baths, showers and sinks comes through our reed bed, which filters and cleans the water, before it passes to our pond. This means it is important to avoid putting any chemicals down the sink, and why we provide ecologically...
Small change
The last week I have despaired somewhat as I watch the government dismantle the renewables industry in the name of shaving a quid off people's energy bills, whilst simultaneously propping up the oil and gas industry to the tune of £1 billion and shamelessly promoting...
Chicken day
Today was 'chicken day' - 15 weeks or so ago, these 10 birds arrived as day old chicks, supplied by our friends Brian and Becky, as something of an experiment in rearing our own meat. They have led a happy outdoor existence, foraging, enjoying plenty of space,...
One for the techies
The last couple of weeks have seen our renewable energy setup almost completed, as the wind turbine was commissioned, although we quickly realised that we would need some additional capacity to deal with all the power coming in. Our Victron Multiplus 24/3000/50...