As most of you already know, we haven’t yet managed to get running water. On a very limited budget it’s difficult to do everything at once, and our building costs alone have been enough to soak up most of our income, not to mention the many unforseen disasters along the way. Thanks to a generous sponsor, however, we were able, finally, to have our internet satellite dish installed.
Now this, to our mind, was a gift direct from the gods. With Internet, we will eventually be able to develop an income that will cover the cost of our bigger projects, like a water hook-up, something we would never be able to afford without a reasonable influx of cash. Not everybody sees the logic in this, however.
We live on the fringes of a small community, and for the most part it’s not a bad experience. People seem to be, if not rooting for us, at least accepting our presence. There is one person in the community, however, who feels we should have invested in water instead of the Internet. “You have to set your priorities”, this person has the nerve to say. “The Internet is just a toy.” While the opinions of the unenlightened shouldn’t bother me (this person has also opined that all women are stupid), ignorance is always irksome, especially when it’s flaunted so loudly and so often.
And I’m irked.
As homesteaders in a rural area where there are few, if any, employment opportunities, the Internet is highly valuable. My partner and I are both experts in our respective fields, but like anyone else, we need the tools to do the job. Saying the Internet is just a toy is akin to saying that a truck driver’s rig is just a toy, or that the cook’s oven is, or the barber’s scissors.
In my opinion, detractors who tell us that the Internet is a toy have not sufficient capacity to realise its value as a tool, their own experience of it being limited to game and pornography sites. That’s just ignorant. But it does raise the question of the importance of being connected to the world from a homesteading viewpoint.
I’m certain we’re not the only homesteaders out there who work remotely, and I’m equally certain that we not the only ones to use the Web as a vehicle for learning. It’s good to have a ready knowledgebase at one’s disposal. When illness strikes, for example, and there isn’t a doctor, the Internet provides enough basic knowledge to help control the situation until we can seek the necessary assistance.
The Internet also provides valuable assistance with other projects, such as gardening. When our food supply is being threatened by foe or fungus, we are able to remedy the situation–and thus save ourselves from going hungry–by untilising information found online. And it also allows us to communcate with expert homesteaders who have valuable insights to share on things other people may not even give a thought to. Who else would know how to make enzymes for the toilet?
The list goes on.
Like all homesteaders, we have to make choices based upon practicality. Sometimes those choices aren’t easy. I’d love to have running water, believe me, but in our situation common sense dictated that steady income would be the better option in the long run, and access to information is paramount for us, living as we do. We could have gotten water with the donation, yes, but to forego an Internet connection meant being without sufficient income–and knowledge–to survive, let alone progress.
Would anyone reading this have chosen differently?