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.
Autumn mists
Today saw the first autumn mist, and the farm took on a magical quality that you only get at this time of year. Such an incredibly abundant time, as fruits begin to ripen, and we are able to harvest from the garden and tunnels every day. Having a freezer for...
Permaculture Gathering 2015
The weekend of August 7-9 saw the first visit of the All Ireland Permaculture Gathering to Northern Ireland - at Tubby's Farm in Hillsborough, home of Sunflowerfest. Preparations have been going on for months leading up to the Gathering, mainly organising the garden,...
Wind power at the farm
Solar power is wonderful but here in Northern Ireland sun is often in short supply, especially in winter when the days are short. Hence the need for an alternative - in this case a wind turbine. Bornay, who make this particular model have been building turbines since...
Our first official event in the classroom!
When we built the classroom space, the intention was always that it would be a space for people to come to and discover new things - not only from the person giving the talk or presentation, but from each other. So it was this weekend as we hosted the first 'proper'...
Community living
I recently heard Tobias Jones talking on the radio about Windor Hill Wood, an experiment in communal living, albeit a fairly extreme one where his family took in folk with a range of issues, with the ideal of giving them a refuge. Although our circumstances are vastly...
Solid foundations
Two years ago we built our little stone circle at midsummer. Our home is built from the granite that it sits upon, and the stones are a connection to the mountains they look to, as well as a reflection of the place in which we live. The stones are all...