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Alexander Long

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since Sep 25, 2018
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Recent posts by Alexander Long

Help us bring a beautiful, established farm back to life—and help shape what it becomes next.
We have 100+ acres of land, animals, infrastructure, equipment, lodging, and a decade of experience. What we're short on right now is time and energy. We're looking for someone or someones with practical skills, initiative, and genuine interest in regenerative agriculture and rural living who wants to become part of something for the long haul.

The Opportunity

We'd like to explore cooperative opportunities with someone who is interested in being part of an established, beautiful, regenerative farm in central North Carolina.

This isn't necessarily a traditional "farm hand wanted" position. We're open to finding the right person and then figuring out what makes sense together—whether that's a paid position, work-trade, profit-sharing on particular projects, or some other kind of partnership.  We're flexible about exactly how the arrangement works for the right person. If you have a particular skill set or business idea that could fit here, we'd be interested in hearing about it.

About the Farm

We own 53 acres and farm another 50 acres nearby. The farm is outside of Saxapahaw NC and well established, with barns, outbuildings, fencing, mature trees, gardens, ponds, pastures, roads, utilities, lodging, equipment, and pretty much everything needed to make a farm work.

We have cows, goats, chickens, and horses.  It's a genuinely beautiful place with a lot of character, privacy, and variety. Things here have been built to last. We're also fortunate to be part of an excellent foodshed and a creative, artistic, positive community. There are a lot of interesting people and things happening nearby, including Saxapahaw and other small communities in the area.

More importantly, we think the farm has enormous potential.

Why We're Looking for Someone

For most of the past decade, my wife has primarily managed the animals while I've focused on equipment, plants, haying, and the larger land projects. Here is my wife's website: https://longacresfarm.us/

Over the past year, though, our second child was born and I also opened a large plastics recycling factory in a nearby city. As a result, our attention on the farm has dropped substantially.  Here is my website: https://the-topia.com/

That hasn't just affected the day-to-day work. We've also lost momentum on some of the things we care most about: producing more of our own food, developing food forests, improving the land, and building toward a more sustainable and regenerative way of living.  We'd like to change that.

What We're Hoping to Find

Our ideal situation would be to find someone with some experience, or at least someone who already has a genuine understanding of this kind of lifestyle.

We're especially interested in people who have vision, initiative, creativity, and a desire to build something over time. There is a tremendous amount of room here for someone to bring ideas to the table. We have the land, infrastructure, tools, machinery, and experience. What we're missing right now is more time, energy, and momentum. We're not looking for someone who simply wants to be told what to do every day. We'd much rather find someone who sees possibilities and wants to help create something.

That could mean helping with animals, gardens, pasture management, haying, fencing, carpentry, land stewardship, food production, food forests, equipment, construction, or any number of projects. It could also mean developing something of your own that fits naturally into the farm.

We're genuinely open to exploring what a good arrangement looks like.

What We Can Offer

Over the past decade, we've taught many people a wide range of practical skills, including animal care, food production, land stewardship, carpentry, construction, power tools, tractors, equipment, and much more.

We're happy to keep teaching. What we don't currently have the capacity for is teaching someone from scratch who is only planning to stay for a short time. We want to invest in someone who is interested in learning, contributing, and hopefully building something over the longer term.

We have tools. We have machines. We have land. We have infrastructure. We have knowledge. And we have a community around us.

The Reality of Farm Life

Farm life is wonderful, but it isn't easy.

It's hot.

It's cold.

It's sweaty.

It will surprise you. There are early mornings, physical work, unexpected problems, and things that simply have to get done regardless of the weather or how you're feeling. During hay season especially, there can be some very long days. But there is also something incredibly satisfying about putting your effort into a piece of land and watching it become better year after year.

You plant something and watch it grow.

You build something and see it become part of the farm.

You improve the soil and watch the land respond.

You raise an animal, harvest food, restore a pasture, plant a tree—and years later, you can still see the results of the work you did.

That's the part we love.

Life Here

We're not a drinking or drug-oriented household, and we need the people living and working here to be comfortable with that. We've also spent our fair share of time helping people through personal crises. We're sympathetic to people going through difficult things, but we aren't currently in a position to take on that role again. We're looking for someone who is relatively stable and ready to contribute to a positive environment.

Outside of work, life here can be a lot of fun.

We like camping, swimming, fishing, riding horses, big bonfires, hosting dinners, and getting out into the surrounding community. There's plenty to do around here, and you're welcome to be part of it.

The Bigger Picture

Ultimately, we're looking for more than labor. We'd like to find people who want to participate in building something meaningful.

We believe regenerative agriculture, local food systems, land stewardship, community, and more self-sufficient ways of living are important parts of the future. We have a place where many of those ideas can actually be put into practice.  The farm has a strong foundation. Now it needs more energy, creativity, and vision.

If that sounds like the kind of place you'd like to be, we'd be interested in hearing from you. Tell us a little about yourself, your experience, what you're looking for, and what you might imagine doing here.

**Maybe there's something we can build together.**
4 days ago
I have permanent mounded garden beds and fields and pastures here in previous tobacco/grazing land in Central NC. I handle the two spaces differently because it’s hard to mulch 120 acres no matter how many loads Asplundh brings you.

In the gardens there’s two types of amendments: good and bad. Anything I think is good gets put on top. If you don’t mix it in it’s hard to do damage: mulch, compost, hay (no persistent broadleaf sprayed stuff - that sets you way back), ash, charcoal, whatever. Every year gets better and better. Just be patient and go for the small wins. Keep it fun so you keep it up and don’t be discouraged if some years some things fail. I don’t overreact with pests or deficiencies and usually they correct themself.

Big scale is so different, spread as much good stuff as you can, but also don’t be afraid to do a few applications of P K when you get started. Bring some levels back up and then stop “mining” the soil, and it starts to cycle again. Keep in mind how abused most land currently is. You’re not starting from Step 1, you’re at Step -100.

Another thing I want to mention is very strategic sub soiling. You can do it wrong but if you do it right it does so much good. It’s a good alternative to swales if you don’t want to spend the rest of your life making turns on a tractor.

Y’all are loving Mother Nature and bringing life back into the world. Just keep going!
8 months ago
Fiskars makes an upright weed puller that I use. It is very effective for thistles. It has four teeth at the bottom. You step on it, and then bend it back to clamp and pull.

A little one won’t work. Needs to be as big as the Fiskars or bigger.
2 years ago
Get a log, telephone pole, or section of railroad track and attach eye-bolts to both ends. Hook that up to a tractor and just drag it down. The heavier the better if you want it to stay down. If you don’t have a tractor you can pull it with a truck. Super cheap and effective.
6 years ago
Hello,

We have four ponds on our 53 acres here in central NC (zone 7b).  I have attached pictures of the two largest (about 1.5 acres and 1 acre respectively for the one with the algae bloom).  When I bought this small farm a bit over a year ago everything had been neglected for about a decade.  There are a lot of sweet gums here, and it took some months to selectively clear large stretches along the pond edges.  Since then, the wild blackberries, sweet gums, and various thorny vines have come back with a vengeance.  Maintenance right now involves regular trimming, which takes a lot of time and feels like a lost cause.

I am tremendously inspired by Sepp Holzer's farms and would like to put in more ponds, but my questions are about their maintenance:

How does he keep the bank growth low and accessible?  Are there particular plant species like cattails I should be looking at in this zone?
How does he keep his ponds from silting in, particularly with the heavy vegetation surrounding them (must drop tons of debris)?

Locals here seem to be of the consensus that the only option is draining regularly and then bringing in a dozer to fix up the banks and clear the silt.  It's expensive and I really hate to do that to the pond-ecosystems.  We've looked into dredging but that is way too expensive, particularly if we were to add even more ponds.

Your thoughts or expertise are much appreciated.
7 years ago