A chair for Lyra
Isn’t it fine? Our friend Clare came to help us plant trees last year, and came back this autumn to cut some birch, as she makes rustic chairs. Today she brought us this fantastic little Lyra-sized chair, complete with elm seat. It is just beautiful. We are...
Can you give this cockerel a home?
We hatched two lots of eggs this year, and would you know it, from nine chicks we got only two hens. Seven cockerels shouting at dawn every day is seven too many, and so they have all gone for the pot, bar one. Martin (I don’t name them;) is a wily young chap...
A little bit of Wales has come to live at Lackan Cottage Farm
Well, after weeks of pole preparing, canvas proofing and waiting for half decent weather, we finally put up the tipi in the camping field, and it is very fine indeed. There’s more to it that I ever thought, and it took a day, but we got there in the end,...Food swap success
We held the first South Down Food Swap a couple of weeks ago, and it turned out to be great fun. Swappers brought with them a great selection of veg, jams, preserves, pies and more, which made for some very competititve bartering. We can’t wait to do it...
The end of the season
Well, our busy season has finally come to an end, with the departure of our last wwoofers of the year – Armando, Clare and their son Leo, who have just returned home to Illinois in the USA. Most of their week here was spent preparing all the bits and...
A tipi for Lackan Cottage Farm
Three years ago now, Claire and I set off for Wales, to spend several amazing days far away from roads, electricity, phones and people. Our home was the tipi above – Waterfall Tipi, and it was here that Claire agreed to marry me. Ever since, we have...
Our first permaculture weekend
This weekend saw our first two day permaculture course, led by Hannah Mole, and we had a ball. After a frantic week of preparations by our wwoofers Bettina and Caroline, the place looked amazing, and the energy of having some 20 people on site was really...
The very first South Down Food Swap!
As part of the South Down GIY (Grow It Yourself) group, we are pleased to announce the very first South Down Food Swap on Saturday October 12th, between 2 and 5pm. The idea is that people bring along their surplus, and are able to swap and barter for the things...It’s volunteer time again
At last September is here, and our intrepid Wwoofers have arrived – Caroline (left) from Sweden, and Bettina (centre) who has hitchhiked all the way from Austria (again)!. We love having people here – it is great to hear their stories, and the feeling of...
The truck is reborn (again)
Somehow in amongst the other work, I managed to gut our truck, which was home for 18 months, and has subsequently been the residence of many volunteers. It ended last season desperately in need of a refurb, but even I was surprised just how much work it has taken to turn it into a really nice place to stay. Now it is complete inside, I want to move back in.
A tremendous treebog
We needed to get our truck ready for visitors early, and having the loo nearby was a part of that.