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.
Any old iron
One of the more endearing traditions on old country farms is the liberal application of scrap metal to hedgerows and woodlands, and ours is no exception. Everything from piles of tin baths to the old cast iron wash tub - and a vast amount of one of the most evil...
A new toy
As a result of some lucky trading, we were able to pass on the truly massive stove that came our way, but which was way too big for the room, and get ourselves a shiny new Stanley stove for the living room. The gas bottle stove has gone back into the truck where it...
Autumn sunshine
Evacuated tube solar collector Someone told me last week that they wouldn't have solar water heating because 'It doesn't work in Northern Ireland'. Funny that, I said, because every time the sun comes out it heats our water to 40 degrees, at least. Oh and it charges...
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...