It isn't that we can't learn how to live like our forefathers, hunting, fishing, keeping warm, curing meats, canning, building our homestead in the exact ways which were the norm for them. It is that the government finds it incompatible with what they believe is the right way to live. And today's blog is about a man who is living and teaching the old ways, and is being forced to bring his homestead up to code or shut it down. Eustace Conway teaches classes in pioneer living; everything from farming with horses to preserving foods. But to the government it's a bit too primitive for their liking. And so he is faced with losing his life's work of 27 years, his homestead school, teaching others how to live without support from the outside, living like Henry Thoreau. You see, his structures don't meet code.
Now, if I were smart, and I'm not saying I am, but if I were, I would think that the way to teach someone how to do something well, is to demonstrate it in a way that is exactly how it was done. But the government doesn't agree with that. Nope. Not Boone County.
The history on this man is intriguing. Eustace Conway graduated from Appalachian State University over 25 years ago, and with his desire to go back to what it was like to be a pioneer, he started buying up plots of land and created a very nice spread. He hadn't read Thoreau when he first started his life's dream, and once he did, he discovered he and Henry were kindred spirits. But now the government wants to quash their bond.
Recently Eustace received a Cease and Desist Order from the County of Boone in North Carolina. The county had inspected his property in the past with no problem. But this time there was. So a meeting was set with him at the county seat. The tried and true methods of his structures, skilled construction that had served men who went before him long ago, were deemed unsafe and would have to be brought to code before he could reopen his school. It was one thing for him to live like that and take chances, but it was another to bring helpless, uneducated city slickers out to learn his ways and take a chance they might slip on his wood bridge with only one handrail instead of two. See, it crossed a small creek on his property and one rail was how it was done back then. One rail allowed a man to carry a wider load than the width of the bridge, say a wheelbarrow. It could hang out over the one side with no interference. But, of course, the county would say make it wider and put on the other rail. Well, with a Skill Saw and electricity, this might not be a big project, but it would be a useless project. I suppose they'd accept a sign that said, "Danger, Do Not Enter" just so Mr. Conway could show his students how the old bridges were built, and then another foot bridge meeting code could be built along side of it to keep them safe from the dangers of a one-railed bridge.
I think what is interesting about this case is its similarities to the Hammond Ranch case, LeVoy Finicum Ranch case or the Cliven Bundy Ranch case. There are many of these cases, but these two men started to plead their situation in a rather public way to bring attention to what is happening in our great country when government gets too big and decides that you need to be helped out of your possessions or your profession. After all, they are the government and they are here to help you. Eustace Conway's case differs only in that he's being attacked at a local level and the FBI isn't involved. And like LeVoy Finicum, he's a very quiet man, just wanting his American Dream to keep going. A TV station has rallied to show his situation to its viewers, just as LeVoy Finicum and Cliven Bundy the Hammonds got the conservative media involved in theirs. And just like these two ranchers, Eustace's situation involves land.
But there is another element that I can't help but ponder. Eustace isn't a survivalist, or prepper. He's just living in the old ways. One might wonder if teaching other people his ways worries a government who needs everyone to toe the line instead of being self-sufficient. Ranchers and farmers with extensive land knowledge can flourish on their own with the help of God and without the Government worming its way into their lives. But there is one more thing they can do which your average urbanite can't do. They can rally their troops, fellow farmers and ranchers, the men who know what it takes to keep our country alive. It's in their blood.
They know that "All It Takes for Evil to Triumph Is for a Good Man to Do Nothing." Remember LeVoy.
See Eustace Conway's story. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fz-RpauumNo
Now, if I were smart, and I'm not saying I am, but if I were, I would think that the way to teach someone how to do something well, is to demonstrate it in a way that is exactly how it was done. But the government doesn't agree with that. Nope. Not Boone County.
The history on this man is intriguing. Eustace Conway graduated from Appalachian State University over 25 years ago, and with his desire to go back to what it was like to be a pioneer, he started buying up plots of land and created a very nice spread. He hadn't read Thoreau when he first started his life's dream, and once he did, he discovered he and Henry were kindred spirits. But now the government wants to quash their bond.
Recently Eustace received a Cease and Desist Order from the County of Boone in North Carolina. The county had inspected his property in the past with no problem. But this time there was. So a meeting was set with him at the county seat. The tried and true methods of his structures, skilled construction that had served men who went before him long ago, were deemed unsafe and would have to be brought to code before he could reopen his school. It was one thing for him to live like that and take chances, but it was another to bring helpless, uneducated city slickers out to learn his ways and take a chance they might slip on his wood bridge with only one handrail instead of two. See, it crossed a small creek on his property and one rail was how it was done back then. One rail allowed a man to carry a wider load than the width of the bridge, say a wheelbarrow. It could hang out over the one side with no interference. But, of course, the county would say make it wider and put on the other rail. Well, with a Skill Saw and electricity, this might not be a big project, but it would be a useless project. I suppose they'd accept a sign that said, "Danger, Do Not Enter" just so Mr. Conway could show his students how the old bridges were built, and then another foot bridge meeting code could be built along side of it to keep them safe from the dangers of a one-railed bridge.
I think what is interesting about this case is its similarities to the Hammond Ranch case, LeVoy Finicum Ranch case or the Cliven Bundy Ranch case. There are many of these cases, but these two men started to plead their situation in a rather public way to bring attention to what is happening in our great country when government gets too big and decides that you need to be helped out of your possessions or your profession. After all, they are the government and they are here to help you. Eustace Conway's case differs only in that he's being attacked at a local level and the FBI isn't involved. And like LeVoy Finicum, he's a very quiet man, just wanting his American Dream to keep going. A TV station has rallied to show his situation to its viewers, just as LeVoy Finicum and Cliven Bundy the Hammonds got the conservative media involved in theirs. And just like these two ranchers, Eustace's situation involves land.
But there is another element that I can't help but ponder. Eustace isn't a survivalist, or prepper. He's just living in the old ways. One might wonder if teaching other people his ways worries a government who needs everyone to toe the line instead of being self-sufficient. Ranchers and farmers with extensive land knowledge can flourish on their own with the help of God and without the Government worming its way into their lives. But there is one more thing they can do which your average urbanite can't do. They can rally their troops, fellow farmers and ranchers, the men who know what it takes to keep our country alive. It's in their blood.
They know that "All It Takes for Evil to Triumph Is for a Good Man to Do Nothing." Remember LeVoy.
See Eustace Conway's story. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fz-RpauumNo