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.
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...
Cabin in the woods
Blogging from the phone now as we have no proper Internet. Explored our woods today and found a little cabin hidden away..Some great clearings for camping, so exciting things ahead there.
Do you know this sheep?
Do you know this sheep? Or at least what breed she might be? She looked at us with a very enquiring air yesterday as we passed her by at the Balmoral Show, so we stopped for a chat. Balmoral was fascinating, and we could have spent days wandering round. These chaps...
Decay is a many splendoured thing
The end of my first week in the cottage, and already I am starting to know all its little quirks. Where the wet rot lurks - where the damp is - where the fungus is - where the rotten brick is, and which bits of its sturdy, yet delicate structure would be best left...