Building a pallet yurt

Building a pallet yurt

Occasionally I am let off the farm for good behaviour, and so on Sunday I set off for Co.Wicklow, and Castleruddery Organic Farm to learn how to make a yurt from pallets, with ‘Rubberband’ Ray Edwards. Ray is an inventive guy, and under his excellent tuition, our group learned how to make an extremely sturdy yurt.

Sheds come and go

Sheds come and go

We are now starting our fourth year here at Lackan Cottage Farm, and what seems like an endless series of building projects is at last coming to an end. The cottage refurbishment, polytunnels, compost loo, stables, the little cottage, outhouse, woodshed, bike store, paths, ponds, wind turbine and solar arrays, and most recently the rebuild of the old hay shed into a workshop and bigger hay shed.

An interesting diversion

An interesting diversion

The weather may have been pretty consistently awful this last while, but somehow we’ve managed to make what feels like significant progress on the various projects that are ongoing here at Lackan Cottage Farm, in between being slightly sidetracked by things like...
Fixing the floor

Fixing the floor

Usually I post about the things that have gone right, but we are on a learning curve, and things often don’t work out first time around. The floor in the new build is one such case. After much deliberating, and mainly due to budget constraints, I put in a...
Our first official event in the classroom!

Our first official event in the classroom!

When we built the classroom space, the intention was always that it would be a space for people to come to and discover new things – not only from the person giving the talk or presentation, but from each other. So it was this weekend as we hosted the first...
A building we will go..

A building we will go..

Well. here it is – or the outside at least. Six weeks of frantic building activity is at an end. There’s something very satisfying to go from a pile of timber – below – to a wonderful sturdy, weathertight building. We’ve had help from all...

Materials wanted list

We have an ongoing wishlist of materials that will be needed here on site, so if anyone has any of the following they would like to part with, then please let us know. Rapid collection assured….Email lackancottage [at] riseup.net if you can help. Timber –...
What’s it going to look like?

What’s it going to look like?

Something we’ve been asked is ‘what exactly will this eco classroom look like? The answer, is  – something along these lines, although to a certain extent it will be determined by the materials that become available. The interior above is a similar...
Eco classroom update – week 2

Eco classroom update – week 2

At the end of our second week, and we are within £100 of being at the two thirds stage in our bid to raise money and build an eco classroom here at the farm. In the process we’ve got to know loads of new people, and will hopefully get to meet many of them in...
Please help to crowdfund our new project

Please help to crowdfund our new project

An Eco Classroom for Lackan Cottage Farm from Steven Golemboski-Byrne on Vimeo. As many of you will know, we welcome all sorts of different people to the farm, all the time. From local and international volunteers, to the GIY group, permaculture courses, and the many...
One year on…..

One year on…..

For a while there we thought it might never be sunny again, but once again we are enjoying the warmth, and  the knowledge that the sun is providing our electricity and an increasing amount of our hot water.  All around us the place is bursting into life, and the brown...