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.
Demolition time
Yesterday I began my assault on the horrible 50's concrete extension on the south side of the house, by punching a hole through the wall in front of the previously hidden bathroom window. Today we went a bit further -Here's the extension first thing this morning..at...
Woodland wanderings
This is a really beautiful time of year in the woods, and I'm in the process of clearing fallen timber and storing it to dry. Here's the entrance into the woodland, which opens into a great clearing, in which is growing one of the few Rowan trees we have. The Rowan...
More maps, and a date
Last night Mr Truesdale, from along the road, brought round his extensive collection of locally historic documents, and we learned much. It will take a visit to the public records office in Belfast to unearth the detail we need, but now we do know what we are looking...
The Turnip House
We do like visitors, and it was great to see John and Elaine from the Turnip House, who very kindly brought us housewarming (and headwarming) hats. If you are coming to the area, make sure you visit their tea house - the cake is fabulous. They make knitwear and felt...
September
Thresh seed, and to fanning, September doth cry,get plough to the field, and be sowing of rye;To harrow the ridges, ere ye strike, is one piece of husbandry Suffolk doth like.Sow timely thy white wheat, sow rye in the dust,let seed have his longing, let soil have her...
Time travelling update part 2
So...after a bit of research, it looks like we have identified at least some of the people in this picture. We had the photograph looked at by Jayne Shrimpton, a dress historian and picture specialist, who confirmed that the picture was probably taken between 1897...