the milk from a cow isn't available all year round in pre modern farming times. The milk is made for the calf, and tapers off as the calf grows up. It is modern intensive farming that persuades the cow to keep going.
Cows don't naturally produce milk mid winter.
The innuit people make shoes out of fur. They sew boots directly from the hide of furry animals with the fur on the inside. I think it is seal skin which is the best one, one seal boot is warm enough to wear with bare feet inside in artic winter.
I think we don't realise how badly we dress now, as a child I was expected to wear vest, long sleeved shirt, warm (woolly, knitted) jumper. Thick trousers (no leggings) long socks and slipper or lace up shoes. When my kids sya they are cold, and I say put on a jumper and socks and slippers, they roll their eyes. Also people didn't sit around on computer or watchign TV, they were active.
Russia - I lived for a number of years in Central Asia, not long after the fall of communism. I learnt a lot about life under communism form my frineds there. They have queueing down to a refined art. You could queue in several queues at once, everyone remembers who is behind you in the queue and holds your place. the shops were empty, and there was very little to buy. Nothing was imported from the west, and Soviet versions were often poor quality. There was no advertising or colourful packaging, as that was all Capitalist. So bread trucks were plain grey with the words Bread stencilled on the side.
Daily life was hard and dull. All consumer items eg fridges were earned on merit and most people didn't have them, flats were small, cramped and basic. You queued for everything, sometimes for hours at a time, everyone worked, 6 days per week, all kids had to be in nursery full time from age 2. Even if there were goods in the shops, you didn't have the money to buy it.
Food was hard to get. In the summer when veg was available you bought whatever you could and bottled and dried it for the winter. I had to do that for the first few years we lived there. Many people had allotments 'dachas' where they grew food in the summer, to last through the winter.
Yes, people did have access to comprehensive health care, available to all, good vaccination programmes etc., but as you could buy your docotrs degree, or be awarded it as the son/daughter of an official, the standard of care was poor. The children's hospital in the expensive new capital city I lived in was shocking. Truly abysmal. Yet the same country runs the International Space Station. The maternity hospital that most women use is horrific, I knew 3 families whose babies died or were paralysed due to bad deliveries, eg mis use of forceps. At the same time, there is a state of the art new Mother and Baby hospital in the city, but it is restricted access.
In Soviet times, you were very, very careful who you trusted, of course daily life went on, falling in love, having kids etc, but the stress levels were very high, and it was always possibe that someone, even your own kids, might tell the authorities that you had done something wrong, and you could be shipped off to Siberia.