MovieChat Forums > Mountain Men (2012) Discussion > eustace....

eustace....

posted 12 years ago by lrscream66
14 replies | jump to latest

Not for nothing but what does he teach of the land?? Seems like a con artist in my opinion. He hires these people to do his grunt work while he gives them shelter and food. Maybe Justin was right about him.

[–] holbrookp 12 years ago

Me too. I don't blame Justin for his attitude. Here he's 22 years old, a time when he should be using his youth to begin advancing in life: a better education, a good job, saving money, maybe striking up a romantic relationship, everything to be making a good future for himself. But what's he doing? He's down in the backwoods doing odd jobs for an old hippy in an effort to learn to "live off the land" or something. Looks to me like he realized he wasn't achieving much in proportion to all the work he was doing. Let him work there a couple of years and he'd really be no better off than he was the day he came.

The time must have come when he thought, "Hey, wait a minute... I didn't see a long line of people applying to join up here and do this work. Why was that? Could it be that everybody else figures they have better uses for their time? What am I doing here! What was I thinking?"

Good luck, Justin. You're better off.

"Truth is its own evidence." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

[–] DrDanielChallis 12 years ago

Justin needs a full time job with part time schooling, a heavy dental bill and some social skills before anything happens to him

Eustace is too dependent on old technology for his own good and his unwillingness to actually train someone properly instead of assuming they should know more is laughable - all he'll do is miss a deadline and that will be that of his land

No help from Harold

[–] blackknight273 11 years ago

In all truth, Justin would probably be better off spending a couple of years in any of the branches of the military and learning a skill. He's eager and physically tough - he just lacks discipline. College would probably be wasted on him, unless its a technical school.

I've tried to like Eustace but he comes across as a creep. He just throws off the hippie cult leader/chimo vibe.

[–] catt666 11 years ago

what does he teach of the land??

http://www.turtleislandpreserve.com/home
http://www.turtleislandpreserve.com/programs
http://www.turtleislandpreserve.com/about-us/about-eustace-conway

Mission Statement

Turtle Island guides people through experiences with the natural world to enhance their appreciation and respect for life. We achieve this through a more comprehensive understanding of nature combined with the lessons of our elders and traditions.

"When you arrive at Turtle Island you will be uplifted by the clean environment, beautiful streams, huge trees, pristine forest, and horse-drawn farm - like walking back in time, actually more like leaping back in time! Ferns and flowers and butterflies and beauty are in every direction. You experience hand split shingles, hand carved log buildings, log bridges - a covered bridge; nature made sounds and smells, all of your senses are put into a pleasant state seldom found outside the world of nature.

We teach skills as elemental as how to and why to stay dry on a rainy day and how to stay warm on a cold day to highly developed intuitive skills and philosophies involved with something as esoteric as training a young draft horse. Turtle Island is the "Brain Child" of Eustace Conway. He inherited the vision of earth stewardship and betterment of man from his maternal grandfathers' legacy of Camp Sequoyah, founded in 1924. Turtle Island is a continuation of this rich educational family heritage."

[–] Bush_Pilot 11 years ago

Watching the program where they brag about his owning a 1,000 acres, it seems his mission is to keep as much land as he can for himself. He talks about how someone clearing a lot on the outside edge of his property is 'ruining' the land but he is OK with his own cleared land to build his own house on. He is a selfish, greedy, self-centered man concerned only with his own 'illusion' of a grand scheme to save the forests of NC.

[–] Bush_Pilot 11 years ago

The program infers his battles are with the tax man and his mortgage but in reality, things are a little different. According to a feature story at the Huffington Post, Conway's true nemesis is not "the courts" or some heartless "tax man." It's a 28-year-old woman who was injured during a visit to Turtle Island.

In August 2005, Kimberly Baker of Wilmington came to the preserve on a retreat as part of the North Carolina Teaching Fellows program. She and the others were taking part in an orientation at Turtle Island's entrance when one of Conway's people pulled out a sling and began demonstrating how to hurl stones.

A rock flew backward, blinding Baker's right eye. She sued.

Baker settled with two of Conway's staff for a combined $400,000. In September 2009, Conway agreed to pay Baker $75,000, and to mortgage some of his land within a year to cover the amount.

When the deadline passed without payment, Baker filed a lawsuit for breach of contract. Finally, in April 2012 – around the time those episodes were filmed – Conway paid up.

Conway says his contract with the History Channel prevents him from commenting "about the correctness of that" depiction of events. But he avers that reality shows are about building suspense and drama, "And a lot of the life out here is not as dramatic as they want it or need it to be......

Ref: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/12/mountain-men-on-history-n_n_3743985.html?utm_hp_ref=entertainment&ir=Entertainment

Later on in the story is this quote;

A former intern expresses a different reservation about Turtle Island.

Calling the buildings solid and the planning department's criticisms "off base," Justin McGuire says it's the camp's facade that's a bit shaky.

The 31-year-old from Newnan, Ga., had hoped to learn how to live off the land, to live simply. He says that's not what he got.

When the cameras were off, McGuire says, campers were using nail guns, bulldozers and backhoes. They ate mostly donated food, including condiments. "There wasn't a whole lot of agriculture going on," he said in a recent telephone interview.

[–] shoutatthesky 10 years ago

How is clear felling a large area just for timber the same as clearing a small area for a dwelling and garden? Any scheme to save any forest is a far more honourable path than what ever *beep* job you do I am sure!

[–] Bush_Pilot 10 years ago

Yeah, he saved the forest for himself. How admirable.

[–] shoutatthesky 10 years ago

For whatever reason he saved the forest it is indeed very admirable.

[–] Bush_Pilot 10 years ago

You should spend your time trying to save something else. Forests are the most renewable resource we have. Plentiful and not threatened at all. I could understand trying to save something like the south's great white oak trees which are disappearing at an alarming rate, but not pulp wood..... it grows quickly and as I said is not threatened. Even the animals can move a short distance to a new forest home that was replanted by logging companies years earlier to replace what they cut. You are misguided.

[–] shoutatthesky 10 years ago

Forests may be a renewable resource but that doesn't matter if we cut them down faster than we can grow them like we are doing at the moment. Have you been in a forest lately - or ever? If you had you would know that they are made up of far more than just trees. Replanting is a great start but it will take thousands of years to return to its former glory. Stop being so ignorant.

[–] Bush_Pilot 10 years ago

You are just another hateful liberal who is so busy name calling and hating you can't comprehend facts. Give up.

[–] shoutatthesky 10 years ago

If "hateful liberal" is another way for conservatives to say "nature lover" then yes I am a proud "hateful liberal". I have no problem with facts. Maybe you have a different experience of forests? Maybe you had a traumatic experience in one that has made you fearful of them? I don't know you so I can't say. The forests in my country are quite different from America (if that is where you are) so maybe you haven't experienced the wonder of a virgin forest untouched since the beginning of time like I have? If you had you wouldn't be so quick to judge as expendable that which one can place no monetary value on. As far as protecting nature goes and working to heal the damage man has done to this planet I will never give up. As far as arguing with people like you with their head in the (tar) sands I will give up on this particular discussion now.

[–] killermouse-imdb 7 years ago

"thousands of years to return to its former glory"

Now that is true ignorance. Within decades replanted areas of forest, like that depicted, can be as close to what it was before the logging so as to be virtually the same, and even difficult, if not almost impossible, to tell apart. Anyone that actually has been in forests, virgin and untouched by logging, and decades after logging and replanting, would know this to be true.