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.
New arrivals
The horses are petrified of them, so I tend to swear about them a fair bit, but the three little pigs that have arrived here on the farm are pretty irresistible. Tiny at the moment, it is hard to believe just how large they will get. Pure bred Saddlebacks all, they'll...
Time to work?
As we've been farm sitting for the last couple of weeks, it has been a great opportunity to see just what is involved in running a full time smallholding. Something that quickly becomes apparent is just how time consuming all this animal and vegetable nurturing can be...
Off Grid – Power
The decision to be off the electricity grid is probably what people first think of when you mention off grid, and in this case, it's not merely an ethical decision, but a necessity borne out of living in a truck, parked in a yard where there is no mains electricity....
Going off grid – food
Food is one area where current circumstances mean that I'm not going to be self reliant, but will grow as much as possible, and enjoy produce such as free range eggs from the hens on the farm. It is certainly a fantastic learning process - we have growing space in the...
Off grid accommodation
Wind chimes
Had a moment today so made up some wind chimes from odds and ends - the striker is an old bowl core left over from turning.