At last midwinter is here, and we marked the solstice with a fire, shared with friends. The seemingly relentless rain stopped falling just long enough for us to enjoy the night and reflect on the turning of the seasons, of which we are more acutely aware, living the...
We love to share our goings on with others, so as well as this blog, we now have a proper Lackan Cottage Farm facebook page too. Making connections and exchanging ideas is something we love to do, so now there are even more opportunities to do so. These reindeer...
The last couple of weeks have also been a bit on the chilly side, with sharp night time frosts, and early fog. Outside pipes and taps have frozen, and digging the ground has become a challenge. It looks lovely though.. We had some amazing frost patterns on the...
Well, after nearly three weeks, our first proper experience as Wwoofing hosts is over, and our volunteer (and now extended family member) Bettina has left to begin her journey home to Austria. Hers will be hard boots to fill, as we have achieved much in her time here,...
The GIY (Grow It Yourself) movement has really taken off here in Northern Ireland, and it was great to visit Sally Taylor’s place in Saintfield – the venue for a meeting of the South Down GIY group. Sally has combined a formal garden, retreat, allotments...
Although it has been a quiet week on the blog, here on the farm it’s been all go. Our intrepid WWOOF volunteer Bettina has arrived from Austria, hitch hiking all the way – at one point on a tractor. A terrifyingly long list of things to do exists, and...
One of the principles of permaculture is ‘Obtain a yield’. On seeing the horses the other day, a visitor asked ‘How do you make money from them?’, and seemed surprised when I simply answered ‘We don’t’. It’s an unusual...
One of the problems with buying land that is affordable, is that it is quite likely to be what is known as ‘unimproved’ land, or that it has been improved, but really not a great deal. Most of ours falls into this second category, and so it was with a...
Yesterday I set off to collect our new hens from William over in Cloughey. Daylight reveals that we have 1 Welsummer cockerel, 2 Welsummer hens, 2 Light Sussex, 2 black bantams, 1 goldeny bantamy thing, and a mystery grey hen. They are living in the new polytunnel for...
Midwinter is now only weeks away, and our day is finishing ever earlier. This evening brought us some dramatic skies, and the promise of a nice day tomorrow, perhaps. I am off to collect some more hens, and our first rooster, from the other side of Strangford Lough,...
One of the reasons that many people are put off installing renewable technologies such as solar PV is that in order to generate enough to power a typical house, you need a lot of it, at fairly vast expense. Being simple peasant folk, that’s not an option open...
This weekend has been a busy one indeed. We had our first wwoofers – Andrew McMurray, founder of the Drumlin Wind Cooperative, and Mick McEvoy, Belfast representative for GIY Ireland, both inspirational guys in their own right, who came to help put up our first...
