113: Interview with David Kershner, Author of the 3-Part, and soon to be 4, Book Series “Foreign and Domestic” - The Prepper Podcast
Summary: Random, Yet Amazing Things You MUST Know as a Prepper<br> Interview with David Kershner, Author of the 3-Part, and soon to be 4, Book Series “Foreign and Domestic”<br> Background:<br> David Kershner is a husband, father of two teenage daughters, avid outdoorsman (hunting, fishing, camping, hiking). Passionate about self reliance, self sufficiency, and preparedness. Grow as much of my own food as possible while stuck in an urban environment. Wrote a fictional series dealing with the collapse of the food system which leads to financial collapse and terrorism. <br> Each book provides information on a wide range of preparedness topics: food prep and storage (root cellar), heirloom seed procurement and harvesting, medicinal herb uses, emergency medical, independence, alt energy, BOB, BOL, Farming…<br> <br> <br> Message Body and Questions:<br> There are people out there that think that they HAVE TO HAVE carbs in their diets. They love to make bread. Packets of yeast last a year at best. What do you do?<br> Simple, make yeast water. Here’s how: Take some pieces of fruit, cut up, with the skin on. Fill a jar about half way with that. Then pour a couple cups of spring or filtered water over top until it’s about three quarters full. Just don’t use alkaline water. Put the lid on loosely, or some cheesecloth, and then let it sit somewhere warm for a few days. The yeast and the carbohydrates that are already in the fruit will start to react to one another. After a couple of days there should be bubbles, that’s how you’ll know if it worked. If you have some sugar you can add some to force a faster reaction. When you want to make some leavened bread, replace the individual yeast and water ingredients from the recipe with the yeast water and voilà, you’ll get a nice fluffy loaf… with a hint of apple, or pear, or peach, or raisin, or whatever you used. I’ve tried it. It works.<br> I have a podcast all about harvesting and storing water on episode 87, theprepperpodcast.com/087. But you have a simple calculation to measure the gallons people can collect from roof tops. How do people know how much they can catch?<br> Assuming that you are catching the rainwater that falls on your home, or some structure, measure the total square footage of all roof lines (Example: (length x width) + (length x width) + (length x width) = total sq footage). You don’t need to worry about the pitch. I have three rooflines that equal 812 sq ft. Now multiply the total sq footage by the average rainfall for the months where rainfall is being collected. In my area it’s 22.5 in. That gives me 18,270. Now multiple that by the conversion fraction of 0.623. That equation tells me that I can conceivably capture 11,382.21 gallons of water during those months. (812 x 22.5 x 0.623 = 11,382.21) Now go buy some rain barrels or an underground cistern to hold as much as possible and you and your garden will never be thirsty again.<br> If someone were thinking about stockpiling some barter items, what do you recommend? Where would you start?<br> I recommend that you start with the three “A’s”. Alcohol, ammo, and antibiotic. Granted in that order, the alcohol will lead to the bullet wound which will necessitate the antibiotic. After that I’d look to the three “S’s”. Seeds, sewing, sharpening. Most everyone will need seeds eventually, especially those that don’t know how to harvest seeds. Clothing will wear out and darning will become a necessity. Axes and knives and chainsaw chains (assuming there is fuel) all need to be sharpened. A modest supply of sharpening stones and files will be a sought after commodity. Other than that, every time you go near canning supplies, grab a package of canning lids. The rims and jars can be reused, but the lids are a consumable commodity.<br> In episode 82, theprepperpodcast.com/082 I talk about communities. Before SHTF,
