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.
Help to save a beautiful home
This beautiful home is, according to Pembrokeshire Council Planners "harmful to the rural character of the locality", and must be demolished. This despite the fact that it is situated in a private spot, not overlooked, and built from natural materials. The green roof...
Spring – not quite what we were expecting
This is our pond. Rather unexpectedly as it happens - we didn't line it or fill it, the volume of rain and snow over the past 24 hours has simply been so huge that it has filled itself. Quite handy really as we can see how the levels will work out, and know...
Six months old!
Well, Lyra is six months old today, and here she is with her first wooden spoon, which she seems to think is extremely tasty. She's thriving in our 'new' home, which is of course six months old too - nothing like a deadline to get the work done. She should be a hardy...
From the Mourning of the World – The Dark Mountain Project
We love Rima's work - there's quite lot of it hanging on the walls here, so this new project is very exciting. The Dark Mountain Project is putting together an album of various artists that are synpathetic to their cause, and it is to be released both as digital...
STOP PRESS – Change of date for One Million Trees in One Day
We got the following email from the One Million Trees in One Day people this morning, announcing a last minute change to the planting date, which will now be SATURDAY 27TH APRIL. Apologies to anyone who was planning to come along - we hope you can make it on the new...
Mad March
March feels like a sprint to the finish in our woodland, which despite this latest brief cold snap is starting to come to life. Everywhere you look, green shoots are appearing, and some of the trees have tiny buds coming out. The challenge for us is to finish...