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.
The vampire horse
Horses are the most benign, friendly non agressive creatures, right? Well - never annoy one, or you might just end up like Mel. He must have upset Sherafey yesterday, because he came in from the field with a huge hole in his neck. She must have been very...
The need for resilience
A fundamental part of our thinking here at Lackan Cottage is resilience - being able to cope with whatever life happens to be throwing our way at the time. For us, this means doing more ourselves and being less reliant on outside sources. The mainstay of this is our...
Our animal friends in their wintry wonderland
At last the rain and snow have stopped, and there is a hint of blue sky above us now. The wind is still bitterly cold though, and the snow shows no sign of leaving us any time soon. This winter has been an especially difficult one for anyone with livestock, and we...
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...