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.
Midwinter celebrations
At last midwinter is here, and we marked the solstice with a fire, shared with friends. The seemingly relentless rain stopped falling just long enough for us to enjoy the night and reflect on the turning of the seasons, of which we are more acutely aware, living the...
Our new facebook page
We love to share our goings on with others, so as well as this blog, we now have a proper Lackan Cottage Farm facebook page too. Making connections and exchanging ideas is something we love to do, so now there are even more opportunities to do so. These reindeer...
Brr…
The last couple of weeks have also been a bit on the chilly side, with sharp night time frosts, and early fog. Outside pipes and taps have frozen, and digging the ground has become a challenge. It looks lovely though.. We had some amazing frost patterns on the...
Big shoes to fill
Well, after nearly three weeks, our first proper experience as Wwoofing hosts is over, and our volunteer (and now extended family member) Bettina has left to begin her journey home to Austria. Hers will be hard boots to fill, as we have achieved much in her time here,...
A meeting of minds
The GIY (Grow It Yourself) movement has really taken off here in Northern Ireland, and it was great to visit Sally Taylor's place in Saintfield - the venue for a meeting of the South Down GIY group. Sally has combined a formal garden, retreat, allotments and an...
Our intrepid visitor
Although it has been a quiet week on the blog, here on the farm it's been all go. Our intrepid WWOOF volunteer Bettina has arrived from Austria, hitch hiking all the way - at one point on a tractor. A terrifyingly long list of things to do exists, and we've begun to...