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.
Solar hot water – new and improved
We've had our solar thermal panel up for nearly 2 years now, and while it has been great, we always knew it was slightly too small for the size of hot water tank we have. Some time ago our friend John Clementson was kind enough to let us rehome a couple of older...
Making a start on the rocket mass heater
Now that we've the outside of the build done, (regular readers will realise that there is something of a gap here, but don't worry its coming soon), we are turning our attention to the rocket mass heater that is going to keep the space warm. For those who haven't...
Reflections
August 2014 will long be remembered as the month of many visitors. Over the course of four weeks we have laughed (mostly) cried (a little), celebrated some amazing cookery and culture, and seen the power that comes from a group of diverse people when they put...
Getting to grips with the garden
Our intrepid wwoof volunteers Samantha and Irene from Italy have arrived, and are getting to grips with our vegetable beds, which after a spell of very dry and then very wet weather, were growing increasingly full of weeds. Happily they have now tamed the...
We’re in Permaculture Magazine!
Many thanks to Maddy Harland of Permaculture Magazine for running an article about Lackan Cottage Farm - we've already met several new people because of it, which is always a Good Thing. For those of you who aren't subscribers, get along...
And we’re back
After a frenetic June, and the success of our crowdfunding campaign, we took a couple of weeks to travel and visit family and friends, and begin to plan the next couple of months in earnest. The thrill of meeting our funding target came with the knowledge that we...