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.
A Million Trees in One Day
Last year we took part in the million trees in one day initiative, which very ambitiously hoped to do what it said on the tin. Technically this year it should be called 'The rest of one million trees in one day' but the sentiment is the right one. Some time in the...
When you gotta go, you gotta go…
We love composting toilets. Most of the time. As three quarters of domestic water useage goes to flushing the loo, composters are an easy way to drastically reduce water consumption, and in return you get some useful compost. As a society we have become used to our...
The wood fuelled home
It has to be said, our lives revolve around wood, and as a fuel trees are hard to beat. They lock up carbon, are completely renewable, and have multiple uses. Trees are key to our approach, both in providing habitat here at Lackan, and as a sustainable source of fuel....
Custodians of the cottage
It struck me as we work away here that our efforts are incredibly transient - part of a cycle of ebb and flow at Lackan, as occupants appear, make their mark, the place blooms, and then they age, and the place ages with them, falls into disrepair, and is ready for the...
DIY Living – Just Do It
[youtube height="HEIGHT" width="WIDTH"]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J_LYefajhk4[/youtube] I saw this today and it really moved me. Enjoy. "Their power comes from our obedience. Disobey"
Here we go again
So much has changed in the last year that looking back to this time last year is like peering at another age altogether. We had no beds to grow food in, a solitary little polytunnel, no pond, no paths, no water anywhere we needed it, there was still a huge pile of...