Studying Useful Skills

This is my grandmother's mother's treadle machine. The last patent date on it is 1875, so it may well predate Annie. Her insoles are in one of the drawers. Metal, uncomfortable things- she wore the same shoe size that I do, size 10 women's. I wear insoles, too.
There are LOTS of skills my cabin-dwelling ancestors took for granted, that my grandparents still practiced as a part of daily life, that my parents still know, that I am familiar with as dim memories from my childhood. 

I can freeze veggies easily (blanching, cooling, and packaging is not rocket science). I can water-bath can apple butter and tomatoes, and I remember canning pickles in an un-air-conditioned kitchen in August as a kid (hot enough to make you live right, eh?). I can sew simple outfits on an electric sewing machine, and hand sew minor repairs.

This year I've decided to expand the skill set. I'm reading library books and amassing quite a collection of public domain, old texts from Google books. I'm collecting documents from online agricultural extension agencies (useful and free). I've bought a pressure canner and my dishwasher (unused most of the year) is now full of jars, and I'm collecting more. I want to get a leather belt for my father's mother's mother's treadle sewing machine, and a set of attachments and needles, and learn how to sew with it. I want to revive the old skills in case the economic times and climate change legislation combine to make things really hard. I know in my head how my ancestors survived, being a family memory keeper, but I want to put that knowledge to use. It may come in handy.