Old time skills....

[pam]

I would like to learn to make baskets too. I used to make little ones as a kid but they never held up. 

I've been tryin different varieties of heirloom vegetables the last couple years too so I can save seed.

[pam]

Geez I gotta get off here and go do somthin constructive lol. I'm glad y'all are interested

[Lookatmeknow!!]

I love RFD-TV!!  It is awesome.  I know that here in town, it is not on the cable line up, but Jeff's Grandpa loved it so much, he pays more for it.

[dnalexander]

I love to make bread. I just started making jelly\jams. Both taste better homemade and by far better than what I can buy in the store. For those interested in breadmaking it is not as hard as you are led to believe by all the cookbooks. When I started years ago I followed everything very precisely. Now with years of experience I can tell you you can make great bread without all the work. I use SAF-Instant yeast, flour, sugar, Oil\butter, and water\milk. I mix it by hand in an old plastic coffee can for 5 minutes or less till it is smooth(no reall kneading just mixing). I then let is rise for a couple hours till it hits the top of the can. Shape it, rise for 1 hour and bake. Very easy. Sometimes after the first rise (2 hours) I will gently knead the dough and put the can in the fridge overnight for a slow rise and then shape and bake the next day for an even more flavorful bread. Also, make big batches and freeze after firs rise for later use.

David

[Tobina+1]

We had a great-great aunt who used to tat (not sure if it's got 2 t's?  tatt?).  She taught my sister a long time ago.  I didn't have the patience to sit and learn.  Not sure if my sister remembers or not.  Tatting is kind of like knitting.  A different type of stitch, and I think it makes more lacy appearance.
My sister also learned how to make crusts and pies from my grandma.  The old fashioned LARD kind of crust.  Again, no patience for me (I was out riding horses and teaching steers to lead).
I used to make all sorts of clothes in 4-H.  Now I mostly do craft sewing.  And repairs.  I have a stack of jeans to patch on my sewing table right now.  Maybe when it gets cold...
Some people say leather working is an old time skill.  Or boot/shoe repair.  How often do you get shoes repaired now days?
Even though it's not a physical skill, geneology is something that most people don't do a lot of these days.  Used to, everyone knew how you were related to each other (closer-knit communities, maybe?).  Now, some people don't even know their 1st cousins (or what a 2nd cousin-twice-removed is).

[Jo McDonald]

When our girls were little, we had the office for Union LP Gas in our home - and to help with the income I baby sat with 5 other little ones, and at night after the girls were in their Daddy's care I tied fishing flies for a company based in the home of an acquaintance.  I learned to sew (some) in high school - so I started sewing for the girls and as they grew I sewed more and more and when they were in high school I made ALL of the clothes they and those that I wore - and also made a  all wool suit for Fred - all of his sport coats- and western shirts and sewed some for others as well.
Fred's Mother and sister-in-laws all crocheted -- but for the life of me, I could only make a chain stitch so I had yards of belt loops  lol  I have always cooked from scratch - pies - breads and have cooked every wild animal known to be edible.  I was born and raised poor - and Mama and Daddy did every thing the "old fashioned" way - so to me it was the only way.  Regrets???  None !!
  I have some lovely tatted things made lovingly for me by my dear late friend Helen Vinette.  What a talent that is - all those fancy little things made with a tiny shuttle and she could tat - talk to you and have a great time while sitting under the hair dryer at my beauty salon, and never mlake a mistake.
Well -- I have rattled on long enough - nice memories, however.

[S-S]

There's still a boot repair shop in Emporia. It's in Jim's Cowboy Shop.


We only pay $2.30 extra for RFDTV, and it sure is worth it. I love to watch their Dutch oven cooking show. I'd like to do that sometime.

My aunt used to make rag rugs. You take long pieces of material and braid them together or somthing like that. It was neat.

I'm sure if I thought about it I could find more old skills I like or would like to learn.

I used to think gardening was oldish, but I hear more and more about people planting different things. There was just an article in my gardening magazine this month about people who live in apartment complexes raising vegetables in "container" gardens.

[Tobina+1]

Hey!  Maybe we can get ClubineRanch to post her Dutch oven peach cobbler recipe that she served at the table decorating contest last spring!  (Post it in the recipes section, though, Barb, so we can find it easily.)
There used to be a shoe repair shop in Eldorado, but the man passed away and it's closed now.

[flo]

I can count the number of clothes my girls had "off the rack" when they were in grade school on one hand.  I made all their clothes.  After they got in high school seems they always had trouble finding a prom dress like they wanted so..... off to the fabric department and pattern department and I'd alter it like they wanted it.  I crochet and knit, but never mastered tatting.  It is such pretty work.  I've tried to get interested in quilting, but can't seem to get into it.  Counted cross-stitch is something else I used to enjoy.  Basket making really sounds like fun.  Pam, Elbert and Irene learned to make baskets during one winter's "snow-bird" in Texas.  They made several "gizzard" baskets that were really neat.  Now ya all have made me hanker to get out my new sewing machine.  Or could finish the two or three things I've got started knitting, or a couple of crocheted projects that have been started.  On second thought  think I'll just go have a cup of coffee (made the old fashioned way in my elec. drip coffeemaker) or I could grind some coffee beans and . . .    but gave Pam my antique coffee grinder.  NO PROBLEM, I got an elec. one. 

[Jo McDonald]

Our winters spent in Texas have shown me more "skills" of all kinds than I even imagined.  One of my friends from New Mexico wove baskets of all kinds from pine needles.  Awesome !!!  She gave me the instrctions- some nice long needles that she gathered in Georgia - and got me started and I made maybe five or six inches on one.  Jeeze - I need to learn to finish when I start --- but just seem to want to try  - then go flying off to something new.  Yawnnn~ ~ ~ They were truly works of art.