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.
Long live ‘not normal’
Today I got a sharp reminder of the difference between 'us' and 'them'. Although Northern Ireland already has more than enough tribal troubles, the fact is that there is a huge tribe out there of people who don't want to be part of the system as it stands; don't want...
Water everywhere
Behold, the heart of my new rainwater harvesting system. This 1000 litre food grade container cost just £30, and will hold enough water to supply the truck for about a fortnight. Thus I'll be using less than a quarter of the average person's water consumption. Where...
Water everywhere
Behold, the heart of my new rainwater harvesting system. This 1000 litre food grade container cost just £30, and will hold enough water to supply the truck for about a fortnight. Thus I'll be using less than a quarter of the average person's water consumption. Where...
PV panels at 54 degrees
PV panels get a bad press here in Britain and especially in Northern Ireland. There just isn't a lot of sun - well not when you'd expect it anyway. Certainly I don't think I'd like to rely on it, on a large scale. However, for our purposes it's working great.For the...
Stocking up for winter (already)..
It may be mid summer, but now is the time to be thinking about where next winters fuel is going to come from, and so I've been busy in the woods, cutting and splitting a huge fallen ash tree. Ash is fantastic stuff, because it does burn green, unlike many woods, but...
ASAP – more thoughts
In the last year or so I've met many people on my travels, almost all of whom have been either working out how to change their lives to reduce their burden on the planet's resources, or who have taken steps to do so. I am in awe of the challenges that many have...