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.
Rocket Mass Heaters talk at Lackan Cottage Farm
Something visitors always ask about here at Lackan Cottage Farm is our Rocket Mass Heater, and so we are honoured to be able to welcome Leslie Jackson, co-author of the definitive book 'Rocket Mass Heaters', to the farm on the evening of Saturday July 25th to give a...
Gold standard Green Tourism
We're incredibly chuffed to have got a Gold level Green Tourism award, and were off to the awards dinner last week at the Sugar Supper Club in Newry (highly recommended, brilliant food). One of only 18 Golds in County Down, too. Northern Ireland's only off...
Midsummer has arrived
Midsummer is upon us, and we were fortunate to be able to celebrate the solstice eve with friends from far and wide - visitors from no less than five nations were here on Saturday. I'm always in two minds about the summer solstice - given that it marks the...
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...