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.
How permaculture can save humanity
We watched this lecture by Toby Hemenway this evening, in which he talks about the meaning of sustainability, and how agriculture as we know it can never be sustainable. He gives the example of the longevity of horticultural societies, and explodes a lot of myths...
The eco map needs you!
I'm compiling a map of broadly 'eco' places - anything that is involved with a low impact, sustainable approach to life, from Transition Towns to permaculture farms, and interesting buildings. Other than the ones I already knew about, finding such places in Northern...
Learning the hard way..
Part of the joy of doing everything yourself is what we politely call 'learning from experience', or more commonly, 'f**king it up'. Yesterday was a 'learning' day. First, I discovered just how close to a hot stove flue you can put roofing felt, when the roofing felt...
Eco-DIY and Building Advice from the Eco Home Centre: Self build the way forward for communities?
Eco-DIY and Building Advice from the Eco Home Centre: Self build the way forward for communities?: This is a picture of the Wintles development in Shropshire that is based on the principles set out in 'A Pattern Language'. The houses wer... read more
Building with waste
ThisTED talk by Dan Philips is fantastic. In it he discusses why consumers, the building industry, and society at large need to break out of the comfortable patterns that lead to massive waste, and how he makes use of that waste to create unusual, and highly personal...
Eco communities – meant for the masses, or the enlightened (and lucky) few
Eco, low impact, sustainable, off grid, communities - whatever label you attach to them, it certainly feels like the movement of 'alternative' communities is gathering pace, and at the same time, starting to attract people that even a few years ago wouldn't have given...