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.
Materials wanted list
We have an ongoing wishlist of materials that will be needed here on site, so if anyone has any of the following they would like to part with, then please let us know. Rapid collection assured....Email lackancottage [at] riseup.net if you can help. Timber - 6x2, 4x2,...
Celebrating our solstice
As the sun set on the longest day of the year, we celebrated the midsummer solstice with good company and a fire (or two). The weather has been amazing this last few weeks, and it held out for us in fine style. Here the sun sets over Crabtree Hill, and as it did we...
A flavour of what is to come
The prospect of a place on our one day courses has proved very popular amongst our crowdfunding supporters, so we thought we'd give a flavour of the sorts of things that we will be doing on those courses. The idea is to give people a choice, and we've several lined...
What’s it going to look like?
Something we've been asked is 'what exactly will this eco classroom look like? The answer, is - something along these lines, although to a certain extent it will be determined by the materials that become available. The interior above is a similar shape, has a lime...
Making a hugelkultur bed
For those who haven't come across them before, Hugelkultur beds are basically a pile of wood or branches, covered with soil to form a raised bed. It is a great way to use up material that might otherwise get burned off. The idea is that the pile rots slowly, giving...
The woven fence is finished
So after a week, the wonderful woven birch fence is complete (at least for now - we have used up all the material), and it looks really fine. It is amazing how much birch was needed to create the fence, but now as we coppice the birch woodland, we'll cut all the tops...