It’s been a GSD weekend over here. What is GSD? Get Shit Done

We had a lot of half-done projects last week that were weighing heavily on all of us to get done. Well, this weekend we have been productive and gotten the two big ones done!

The hot house is complete. FIL & MIL were busy bees Thursday, fitting the windows. Yesterday, FIL primed it, and I spent two hours this morning painting. It is gorgeous, matches the house, and is now ready for the seedlings to go on in.

In regards to the garden, Squatch and FIL started the outer fence posts yesterday, and finished them this morning while I was painting the hot house. The chicken wire for the inner fence got halfway complete before we all came in for lunch. The guys are now back out to finish that fence, and hopefully get the shorter, exterior one done as well. All that is left for the garden is to make the gates for the fences. We’ve got plenty of pallets in the pole barn to use, so that will be tomorrow’s project (and probably Tuesday as well.)

MIL’s sister called yesterday, asking about going in on a pig and a beef. Now, I had mentioned to everyone mid-last week that I was seeing posts from area farms about whole hogs for sale, and how they were selling out really fast. Squatch and I would have made an order, but living with the in-laws, we have nowhere to put the meat. Fast forward to today, and I’m getting asked about where I saw beef and hogs available, pricing on them, order info, etc. FIL keeps saying the prices are too high; he isn’t going to pay three times what he does in the store for chicken, pork, or beef. The rest of us look at the quality of the meat we will get, and how we can build relationships with the farmers we buy from. Plus, we are helping out our fellow neighbours and putting our money into the local economy. FIL and Squatch are going to look into chest freezers, Squatch and I are planning on learning about butchering, and I will put my organizational expertise to work and create a pantry diary.

You can’t have all of this food and no plan for it. So, if there is a rainy day this week, I’m going to grab a legal pad and hit the pantry, taking inventory of everything we have in it. Then I’ll move on to the kitchen and garage fridge and freezers. This will help with long-term planning, as well as just getting a basic idea of where we stand on staples. Doing an inventory now will also be of great help once we get the meat. If we are used to eating what we store and storing what we eat (thanks for that one, Nicole Sauce from Living Free in Tennessee!), it will be second nature should SHTF and we are forced to rely on just what we have in the house.

So, what was your GSD this weekend? Do you have plans for going forward, ensuring you are self-reliant and have a stocked pantry?