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.
Hooray, Hoppi the hen has unblocked!
Hooray! Having been egg bound since her arrival, and with a sore leg to boot, poor old Hoppi was looking very sorry for herself. Hence she has been holed up in a box in the kitchen, to escape bullying by the other hens and to give her a chance to unblock. Whether it...
A fantastic new floor
Today was a real milestone, as we went off to collect the freshly milled Douglas Fir floor from Ballytrim Sawmills. All our timber has come from Clarke Cunningham, and we were happily surprised to find that he'd done half as much again as we'd asked for, which is...
Cooking with wood, part 1
After only a short time I am starting to appreciate the work that is needed to not only manage but to learn the ways to get the most out of a wood fired range. The Doric wasn't strictly designed to burn wood - rather it is a solid fuel stove, but we have adapted it by...
We’re in!
After 3 months pretty much solid work, we are finally about to spend our first night in the cottage. It already looks like we've been here forever though..The range, bless it, worked a treat, and we've had our first meal cooked on it too. About time..
Rescued hens
Today (in the middle of moving into the house) we headed off to Nut House Hen Rescue to collect four new hens, who were liberated from a caged environment only yesterday. Currently they haven't ventured out from under the coop, and are being regarded suspiciously from...
Pipers, planting and pointing
It's been a busy old day. This morning I could have sworn I heard bagpipes, and sure enough it turned out to be the local band heading up the road from the local Orange hall. The horses really don't know what to make of them at all, but they are very good. Today the...