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.
Preparations continue..
In the hope that we might complete our land purchase sometime soon, work continues apace to get all our assorted junk ready to move. Today saw both trucks started up for the first time in a while, our solar panels hauled down from the roof, and the rainwater...
A beautiful cob home in England
One of the most beautiful houses I have seen, built by Lisa and Rich. You can read more about it on the Natural Homes websiteA beautiful cob home in England
Films For Action Presents: The Top 100 Documentaries Inspiring the Shift to a Sustainable Paradigm
Film offers us a powerful tool to shift awareness and inspire action. It offers a method to break our dependence on the mainstream media and become the media oursleves. We don't need to wait for anyone or anything. Just imagine what could become possible if an entire...
Fire! and a floor.
An amazing days progress on the roundhouse - Helen, Michael, Alexey, Jim and Edie got almost all the slate floor laid and very fetching it looks too. I fitted the last of the flue, and the fire was lit. Suddenly the little house seems to have come to life. Next week...
The perils of being educated
Although its not something I'll have to worry about for a good while yet, the thorny subject of what kind of education I would want for my child, is hovering at the edge of my mind. I have always maintained that school is basically a lottery, in which having a good...
Heating in the roundhouse
The cob fireplace gets its first proper layer Today I thought I'd try and get the heating sorted out in the roundhouse, and so several barrow loads of cob mix later and here are the results. It'll need a fine finish layer, but its getting there. The actual chamber is...