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.
Some damp, and some history
One of the first questions most people ask when they stumble into the cottage and view the destruction, is "has it got a damp proof course". Rather than my immediate response, which would be "are you f**king blind, its a 300 year old pile of stones with an earth...
Drawing breath
Well, thats the end of the second week living here at Lackan Cottage Farm, although it feels like we've been here months. Despite my impatience to get the building work sorted, I've come to the conclusion that a rest day is pretty much unavoidable once a week, as...
Ups and downs
Well, this renovation / smallholding caper is certainly one of extremes. I began this week by exploring the woods opposite our land, walking over Lackan Bog, which is an amazing area of peat bog that has been colonised by birch woodland. Totally peaceful, and teeming...
Early morning
Without doubt the best time of the day, and here is dawn breaking over the lake at the end of the road. The mist has just rolled down from the mountains, and you can imagine that almost anything could lie beyond it.
Amazing views.
Ok, so here is the view from where I am sitting at the laptop, and rather fine it is too. I think we are still at the stage where we keep wandering about just staring at the amazing place in which we find ourselves. For instance, if I look away from the mountains, I...
A week’s progress
The last week has been a mad whirlwind as we arrive on site. Our truck got towed in on Monday, and amazingly, I managed to reverse it into the little drive and park up in front of the cottage. At this point we discovered just how much the drive slopes.....Cue some...