Books – The self sufficient house
None of this energy saving, off grid stuff has appeared out of thin air. Back in 1980, Brenda and Robert Vale wrote ‘The self sufficient house’, which is still an incredibly useful resource and which...
View ArticleThe storm before the calm
I keep nearly writing posts, and it seems there is so much to put in that it never gets done, so its time for a good update and then we’ll keep up to date. There is certainly plenty going on, so here...
View ArticleMore seven year improvements
So having got the house to the point where it behaves itself – we have charged batteries, far more hot water, and considerably less chance of it raining inside the house, as well as not having lit the...
View ArticleA filming day, and the garden makeover continues
There is definitely an increase in the whole idea of sustainable living, living off grid, permaculture, tiny homes – all the things that are part of the ‘how do we survive the next 20 or 30 years’ mix....
View ArticleWild Horses with Joe Rocks
Musician Joe Rocks and his partner came and stayed in our off grid horsebox earlier in the year, and recorded this version of ‘Wild Horses’ during their stay, which they’ve very kindly shared with us....
View ArticleThe Truck in the Times Top 20 Off Grid places
It’s always nice to be recognised, and this week the off grid horsebox appeared on The TImes Top 20 off grid places to stay in the UK list. Introducing people to the idea of living more simply, whether...
View ArticleBirch Cottage makes the Guardian Top 15 Off Grid places to stay
Birch Cottage features in the Guardian’s 15 of the best places to stay off grid in the UK – ‘Off grid living with creature comforts’....
View ArticleScythes, fresh planting and the chicken hordes
A beautiful summer’s day here at Lackan, and one that began with some scythe action in the front field. The new austrian scythe is incredibly sharp, and I can cut grass to literally an inch long with...
View ArticleMaking headway in the garden
Every day now it feels like we are making headway in the garden, this week we’ve brought in 4000 litres of compost to put on the newly manured beds, and that gives us a really nice fine surface to sow...
View ArticleTidying up the power station
I actually did this work earlier in the summer but never got around to posting it. We decided to install another 4kw of solar pv, principally to allow us to run immersion heaters in both cottages over...
View ArticleWood pellet boiler adventures
Sometimes we’re just cruising along doing our thing and a project arrives out of the blue. In this case it came in the form of our largest freecycle ever, courtesy of Leo, who had spotted it and...
View ArticleBarra on the Bann
One of the best aspects of life here is that we get to try our hand at things that we’d never thought of. Filming is one of them, and over the last few years we’ve been involved in quite a few...
View ArticleSubscribe to our YouTube channel
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View ArticleMaking the most of the light
We’re into the part of the year that is hardest for those living off grid, when the days are getting increasingly short, the sun doesn’t appear that often, and when he does, he’s pretty low in the sky....
View ArticleBornay wind turbine upgrade
So after years of gradually building up our renewable system, we’ve definitely got to the point where its perfectly capable of supplying us with enough power, but the thing about building a system as...
View ArticleSummer updates from Lackan
July already, how did that happen.Needless to say we’ve done a fair bit since my last post back in December, so I’m not even going to try and cover it all, as its mostly in a recent video where I did a...
View ArticleThe same but different
It’s nearly ten years now since we landed here at Lackan and in some ways the world has changed very little, and in others we live in an utterly different universe to the one we inhabited back then....
View ArticleTour and talk at Lackan -24th April 2022
This is our tenth year here at Lackan. After two years when we’ve basically been closed down, and the world has changed in many ways it is time to open up again. We’ve had lots of requests from people...
View ArticleCelebrating our tenth year with new courses
2022 marks our tenth year here at Lackan Cottage Farm, and a lot has changed, both here at the farm and in the wider world. Much of what we’ve done here seems very relevant in 2022, and many things...
View ArticleRound(ish) house project update
After two years I’ve finally succumbed to covid, so am waiting out my quarantine by updating some of the information on the website. First up is the roundhouse – a project that at one point I thought...
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