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.
Sunday earth plastering crew
Today we were pleased to welcome old friends and new - the Freckle magazine crew of Lynn, Hannah and Mick, with Andrew and Liam. Together we earth plastered the last of the walls, and gained some mountains and geese, as well as applying some finish coat plaster to the...
Earth plastering day one – amazing progress
Saturday was the first of our earth plastering days, and we made amazing progress - the first scratch coat nearly complete on the west wall, and this amazing tree too. Can't wait to see how our Sunday crew get on, and fingers crossed for good weather...
Green woodworking at Lackan
Introduction to Green Woodworking at Lackan Cottage Farm from Lackan Cottage Farm on Vimeo. This weekend saw our latest 'Introduction to Green Woodworking' course with Steve Ryan. Blessed with wonderful weather, our participants made a range of items on the pole...
Getting plastered
After two weeks of hard graft, our latest wwoofers, Brodie and Molly are on their way, but what a difference they've made. We promised them building work, and our first task was fitting out battens and wood-wool board in the little cottage. Then they moved on to...
Three years of memories
This week we have been here for three years. It might have been a lifetime. Or yesterday, I can't tell which. Looking around it is sometimes hard to remember all the things that have happened here already. How many people have come and shared their lives with us, and...
New insulation for old walls
When it came to refitting the interior of our little cottage - number 81 - we face a different set of challenges to those we encountered here in 79. The little cottage is primarily concrete block built, and cement rendered, so it isn't the most breathable structure....