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.
The lone ranger returns
After a couple of weeks absence, Dotty has returned with a sizeable clutch of chicks - fourteen, we reckon. These plus the seven that Fluffers had last week, and the ten that we are raising for meat, means that not only will our laying flock grow considerably...
A trip to the sawmill
A trip to the sawmill from Lackan Cottage Farm on Vimeo. Today I headed off to Ballytrim sawmill in search of some suitably lovely bits of timber to make seats in our classroom, and I wasn't disappointed. Initially it seemed as though my trip would be in vain -...
Stool making in the sun
This saturday saw the second of our 'Make a stool from a log' green woodworking courses, and our six participants got on incredibly well.. Although Steph left before we got a chance to get a picture.... Some really nice stools were made this time...
A riot of colour
This is Robbie, our magnificent Welsummer rooster - isn't he an amazing colour? At this time of year there is so much to look at you hardly know where to begin. Poppies are everywhere, and more are coming - and just in time for the warm...
Painting with clay
As you can see, the new room is coming on now, and we are on the final layers of clay paint, having gone through progressively finer mixes until we are now using just clay, fine sand, wheat paste, and occasionally some colouring - in this case tumeric. The...
Welcome to new visitors
Welcome - there are many new folk visiting the site this last couple of days so we thought we would say hello, and explain briefly what we are doing here at Lackan Cottage Farm. In essence, we're attempting to use the best of new and old technology and knowledge to...