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.
On a brighter note..
We were married a year ago today, and what a year it has been, living in the truck, and meeting the most amazing people on our travels, and on the farm. There are so many of you that we couldn't have possibly done any of it without, so a huge thank you to all our...
RIP Lily..
RIP Lily hen, taken by the evil cat. Our growling hen vanished last night, at the hands (or paws) of the resident semi-feral cat. The layer of the green eggs is gone, and she, and her eggs be sorely missed.
A brave little horse
Poor little Sherafey, she has had a hard few weeks. Having finally found her a friend she got on with in the form of Mabel, she was bereaved after just a week here on the farm when we sadly lost Mabel to colic. The following day she ran through a wire fence and and...
Fully woolly
We've used all manner of "eco" technologies in the cottage, and my favourite so far is the sheep's wool insulation, which came from Black Mountain Insulation. After a long day yesterday we had a third of the house done, and suddenly the space has changed again.With a...
Meet Dora
This is Dora, the Large Horse that we are hoping to adopt. Today was our second visit to the the horse orphanage at Crosskennan, and I could easily bring a lorryload of them home if we had the room. Back next week to have a sit on her and see how that goes, and then...
Horse accommodation
Sherafeys accident has sparked a furious burst of horse facility improving, and the stables are taking shape (above) - not a terribly eco friendly design but there are a lot of blocks around and we need to get the stables built asap. I'm trying to use as much of the...