My Frustrations

Let me premise this by saying that I love where I live. I am blessed with the life that I have, the husband I have, the friends I have. However, sometimes living in a remote, rural area has its downfalls.
I awoke in a fabulous mood today. I donned some comfy clothes, my walking shoes and I went for a 45minute walk. I came back into the house, made myself a plunger (my daily indulgence) and came to the computer. By this stage it was about 8am. It took 10 minutes for my email to open, Facebook needed to be restarted and refreshed about a half dozen times before it would open, Flickr took 4 hours to upload 1 photo and this website, well its now 1.20pm and this page isn't even open properly, but its allowing me to type now. Living remotely means that we rely solely on our computers to pay bills, order equipment for the property, grocery shop, and at times work. We don't get mobile reception, so its not like we can log on using our iPhones. Yes, we live in the 1% of Australia that doesn't receive mobile coverage. Our internet is satellite broadband. When the NBN (National Broadband Network) was first being established, some 3 years ago, we received a new satellite dish and modem and that was supposed to help with the speed of our system. What a joke! If anything, its worse. If there is wind, cloud, fog, rain we can pretty well kiss our internet good bye for the day. However, today is clear, sunny with only a slight northerly blowing. There is no reason for us to have such a slow connection today. As a result, I have had to fax a food order off to a supplier, that I normally email. I have had to ring people to see if they have received important emails from me. All of which wastes time.
Another frustration is that we don't have a permanent doctor in the town near where I live. I think that it is because the town itself is quite unappealing. There isn't much to do, unless you like to drink! For a township of approximately 250people, there are 2 pubs that remain open. There was a third up until earlier this year when a false insurance claim caused it to close its doors.
We have intermittent free to air TV. Since going digital, our free to air has been pathetic. As we live on a property and we therefore don't pay a certain code item on our rates, we were not entitled to subsidy for a free set top box and new satellite dish. We bought our own box and hooked it up to our Austar dish. Apparently, everyone in our district who has done that has the same issue with free to air telly. We ring the provider of the set top box and ask for assistance and we're told to re-scan the box and that is all the technical assistance we can get. They can never tell us when a tachnician will be in our district as we are so remote!
We cannot get our local electrical company to send an electrician to our property. We have been running our septic system by an extension lead now for 4 mths. I've heard that every time you ring to see when you MAY expect someone to come out, your job goes 'to the bottom of the pile'.
I am frustrated that people pay so much for beef at the stores when we only get an average of $1.80 per kilo. Yes, that's right- you read that correctly. We are in the only industry that has a product, that cannot request a price for that product. Imagine going into your local ice-creamery and saying that instead of paying the $5.00 on a double scoop cone, you think its only worth $3. Do you think they would say "OK, sure thing, here's your ice-cream."? No, I don't think so- yet that is how our industry works. Inflation causes the price of everything we need to run a successful cattle property, such as: fencing gear; water facilities; vaccinations; tags; veterinarian charges; freight costs, to increase however the price we get per kilogram has remained constant for years. Consequently, margins are becoming narrower and many people are going bust. Its not right and something needs to be done. But... how? Where do I start? Not having those answers frustrates me!