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.
Summer harvest
The runner beans are now so tall that we are picking them with a ladder, although they are dwarfed by the winter squash, which still threatens to take over the entire west end of the polytunnel. Courgettes are featuring heavily on the menu too, and we are discovering...
Electric Daisies strike again
The humble Electric Daisy strikes again. John decided to give them a go, and his expression says a lot about the effects that this most enervating little flower can have - Step 1 - Yes, I can feel something is happening.... Step 2 - Yes, definitely something unusual...
Small solar PV
One of the most common questions people ask when they see our little PV setup is 'what will it power?', and the answer is always a bit vague, because I know people are hoping that those little panels might be what they need to disconnect from the grid and live a life...
Forest Gardens
Martin Crawford's forest garden is truly an amazing thing, and we hope to visit one day. Enjoy.
GIY gathering
This week we hosted a GIY get together, before which we had to undertake some serious tidying, as nature has been busy in the last few weeks. The sun shone, and some 20 people came and we spent a very pleasant evening swapping plants, stories and cake....
Midsummer
Midsummer is already upon us, and to mark the occasion, we have erected our own standing stone, which looks toward the mountains with which it shares its roots. We will mark important occasions through the year with a circle of stones. The granite here weathers...