A flavour of what is to come
The prospect of a place on our one day courses has proved very popular amongst our crowdfunding supporters, so we thought we’d give a flavour of the sorts of things that we will be doing on those courses. The idea is to give people a choice, and we’ve...
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...
Would you like a unique carved spoon or bowl?
Steve makes these spoons and bowls here on the farm – spoons are carved from birch, and bowls from a variety of local woods, on a foot powered pole lathe. The result, unique pieces that all have a character of their own. If you would like to own one, and support...
Making a hugelkultur bed
For those who haven’t come across them before, Hugelkultur beds are basically a pile of wood or branches, covered with soil to form a raised bed. It is a great way to use up material that might otherwise get burned off. The idea is that the pile rots slowly,...
The woven fence is finished
So after a week, the wonderful woven birch fence is complete (at least for now – we have used up all the material), and it looks really fine. It is amazing how much birch was needed to create the fence, but now as we coppice the birch woodland, we’ll cut...
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...
A day out
Something of a busman’s holdiay this, but some time ago I helped our friend Brian (of Woodhill Farm) to put up his polytunnel frame, and ever since we’ve been waiting for the weather to be warm and wind-free enough to put the cover on. To hope for sun...
A unique experience
There’s just something about tipis, isn’t there. That iconic conical shape with smoke drifting up in the breeze, flags fluttering from the pole tops. We fell in love with tipis years ago, and knew that we had to bring one back here to Lackan Cottage Farm....
Well done you
It was great to meet the bus full of people who arrived today with Tom Woolley, who has been running an introduction to eco building course. Some great stories, wonderful plans, and glimpses of old buildings that will hopefully be reawakened by the amazing enthusiasm...
Turning up the heat
This is a rocket mass heater – the way in which we will be heating our crowdfunded ecobuild. It is an incredibly efficient way to burn woodfuel, and extracts the maximum amount of heat energy from the fire. The flue gases heat a big cob bench, which then...