Internet versus silverbeet

It's been a while since I've posted, what with illness and moving and not having a net connection set up at the new house. I'm pretty amused by the helpline for our internet service provider, whose recorded message repeats, deadpan that I need to send an email to such and such if I want service (well...that's pretty hard without internet service...;)

Work is crazy, we're selling our old place (I think) and I'm having to deliberately pace myself to prevent a repeat of last week when I was close to shutting down. Most of the time, I recognise I'm juggling, and most of the time, I feel the costs are worth the benefits. But not recently.

My partner wants a heater. Actually, we have an old column heater that sat in storage throughout our habitation at the old place, and that he now has next to his legs by the study desk. The rest of the house is purely, airly, frigidly unheated. I've made a few purchases to "fund" this reduction - thermals, polar fleece, kids' slippers, hot water bottles; and feel that to buy a heater now would be a lose-lose on this front.

When I remember the carefree life in our sunny apartment with such pleasure I could almost cry. Where in July, one could answer the phone and make breakfast and hang out the laundry all while dripping from the shower and deciding what to wear. Splash footprints all over the bathroom and corridors, knowing they'd be dry an instant later. Let the kids get their clothes wet and run around nude.

*sigh*.

The trade-off isn't particularly competitive at the moment - without a fine day to spend in the garden. On the other hand, this kind of weather is an aberration for Sydney. If I can get through it, I can probably get through anything.

So he (of heater fame) asked the question as part of the discussion "why should we be uncomfortable? It's not as if things aren't hard enough" by which he meant the myriad pressures of all the *stuff* going on in our lives.

And here are the million answers I didn't give.
Because being a bit too cold to sprawl for a DVD on the sofa is for most people on the planet unimaginably comfortable. Because having to go full-bellied into a warm dry bed a bit early for the winter months is a luxury available to an elite few (and might even do us good). Because buying polypropylene long johns to wear at home marks us by world standards as the obscenely wealthy ones. Because the cold hasn't affected our health, our kids, or our ability to earn a living (unlike the consequences for other people, somewhere else). Because if we won't do this - who will?

It concerns me that (partly as a function of the *stuff* I mentioned) I haven't brought him along on the journey enough. Of course I want a warm house. I just don't want to contribute to the warming that means my reduced future food security for my kids.

He's prepared for some trade-offs. He proposed that we get a new heater but replace our two cars with an electric car. That we switch off the fridge (that's one that actually might work in our cold house). That we only allow ourselves to switch it on when it's (a) completely dark and (b) before bedtime (ie between 7 and 10 at night). But I feel it's a slippery slope. Especially as we'd be BUYING it...

But the real title of the entry is internet and silverbeet. I'm finding myself with a lot of time on my hands without the internet on at home. But I'm also feeling utterly isolated from the learning I need to do outside work hours. I've got silverbeet seeds (the only ones labelled plantable in winter) and I'm itching to get started. I know no-one with experience in growing food and I need some help / source material / tips!