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.
Pass it on
Something that many of the readers of this blog, and of the blogs that I follow have in common is that we are to some degree, trying to derive a living from the land - usually fairly small bits of it too. Agriculture has grown from humble roots to the massive...
Today’s property offering
This is today's offering, and one that tempts me to become the founder member of 'Occupy Ballyroney'. It's an empty four(ish) bedroom farmhouse, that also used to double as the village shop. It's been empty for some years now, and someone has already nicked the quarry...
Another empty cottage
The countryside around us is full of empty cottages and farmsteads, some of which have had modern bungalows built next to them, but many of which (like this one), simply lie empty. This one is up beyond us, totally hidden from view in the fields, and has no...
Days like this are worth waiting for
We may have had the wettest winter for 100 years but days like this are worth waiting for. Perfectly frosty and clear, no noise except for the hens helping me to muck out the stables, and the smell of woodsmoke. It doesn't get a lot better than that. Suddenly...
Want to join in?
If you fancy rolling up your sleeves and coming to be part of a new smallholding, then we want to hear from you. We're going to register as Wwoof hosts, but if anyone wants to come and spend time under the usual Wwoof agreement, ie - we house and feed you in return...