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	<title>LivingSmall &#187; life skills</title>
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	<link>http://livingsmallblog.com</link>
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	<lastBuildDate>Thu, 29 Jul 2010 18:15:52 +0000</lastBuildDate>
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		<title>Culling Chickens</title>
		<link>http://livingsmallblog.com/2010/07/29/culling-chickens/</link>
		<comments>http://livingsmallblog.com/2010/07/29/culling-chickens/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 29 Jul 2010 18:15:52 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>cmf</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Making]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[chickens]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[food]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[life skills]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://livingsmallblog.com/?p=2422</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Seven chickens, it turns out, was a little more than my yard can really handle, and for the past several months, I&#8217;ve only been getting 2-4 eggs a day from the bunch. I&#8217;ve been trying to figure out what to do &#8212; and while I thought about trying to pawn them off on someone else, really, I knew all along that the responsible thing to do was to cull a few of them. (And for all of you Angry Vegans out there, I have heard your arguments, especially in light of my post at Ethicurean about how I don&#8217;t consider my chickens pets, and let&#8217;s agree to respectfully disagree.) As I was going back and forth, trying to gather up my courage to actually deal with the situation, one of my older chickens came up lame the other day. They&#8217;d been out doing their chicken-y thing in my yard, and when I got the scratch and called out that it was snacktime, one of them was limping badly. This just brought home to me the problems posed by getting chickens when I didn&#8217;t know how to humanely kill one. That one was on the list, and now it was in [...]]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://livingsmallblog.com/2010/07/29/culling-chickens/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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		<item>
		<title>Treadmill Desk Part 2</title>
		<link>http://livingsmallblog.com/2010/07/07/treadmill-desk-part-2/</link>
		<comments>http://livingsmallblog.com/2010/07/07/treadmill-desk-part-2/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 07 Jul 2010 17:48:24 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>cmf</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Making]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[life skills]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[exercise]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[treadmill desk]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[work]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://livingsmallblog.com/?p=2410</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[This morning as I was driving back into town, Dr. James Levine was on The Splendid Table (or on the podcast I was listening to). Levine is the guy at the Mayo Clinic who invented the treadmill desk, and who has fifteen years of data on the salutary effects of getting up out of your chair. Walking while working is best, but even standing instead of sitting has positive effects. Here&#8217;s a link to a video of him talking about the issue: James Levine on Treadmill Desk I&#8217;ve made a few modifications over the past couple of weeks. I was having trouble with the desktop height. I&#8217;d shoved a couple of old pieces of packing foam underneath, but they were squashing, so I asked my Sweetheart, the Carpenter, to take a look. He suggested a two-by-four. So I cut a piece as wide as the desktop, and wedged it underneath. Perfect! The desk is now level, and at the right ergonomic height so that my wrists aren&#8217;t bent at that angle that leads to weird symptoms like numbness and tingling etc &#8230; I also invested in a wireless keyboard and a mouse for my laptop. It now sits on the [...]]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://livingsmallblog.com/2010/07/07/treadmill-desk-part-2/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>6</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Treadmill Desk</title>
		<link>http://livingsmallblog.com/2010/06/07/treadmill-desk/</link>
		<comments>http://livingsmallblog.com/2010/06/07/treadmill-desk/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 07 Jun 2010 19:49:23 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>cmf</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Making]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[life skills]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[exercise]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[work]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://livingsmallblog.com/?p=2398</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[I&#8217;ve had a bee in my bonnet the last couple of weeks about building one of these. Let&#8217;s just say that between all the freelance/contract work these past few months, and the fact that both of my dogs are increasingly gimpy, well, I haven&#8217;t been getting the amount of exercise I&#8217;d like to be getting. I&#8217;ve been spending way too much time sitting on my butt. So, I found a used treadmill at my local sports equipment resale store for under 200 bucks, and it was even small enough once the pedestal and arms were detached that we could get it in the Subaru. The Sweetheart put it back together for me. And after a weekend of somewhat manic de-cluttering and cleaning, I cleared out a space for it in the basement. This is not a particularly slick setup. There&#8217;s a set of metal shelves behind the treadmill where I put the big monitor. A lot of what I&#8217;m doing at my new contract gig is fairly routine &#8212; checking PDFs, publishing documents through our online publishing system (which can be slow) and my hope is that I&#8217;ll both geet some exercise and be able to concentrate a little more [...]]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://livingsmallblog.com/2010/06/07/treadmill-desk/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>2</slash:comments>
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		<item>
		<title>Blast from the Past</title>
		<link>http://livingsmallblog.com/2010/05/20/blast-from-the-past/</link>
		<comments>http://livingsmallblog.com/2010/05/20/blast-from-the-past/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 20 May 2010 19:34:58 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>cmf</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Making]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[food]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[life skills]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[cooking]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[French jam pot]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[jam]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://livingsmallblog.com/?p=2381</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[[I'm up against a bunch of deadlines, and just don't have any blogging mojo right now, so here's an oldie but goodie from the archives. Back soon.] Behold, my gorgeous]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://livingsmallblog.com/2010/05/20/blast-from-the-past/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>What is &#8220;Real&#8221; Cooking?</title>
		<link>http://livingsmallblog.com/2010/04/01/what-is-real-cooking/</link>
		<comments>http://livingsmallblog.com/2010/04/01/what-is-real-cooking/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 01 Apr 2010 21:24:30 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>cmf</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Making]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[food]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[life skills]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[cooking]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[home economics]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://livingsmallblog.com/?p=2318</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[It&#8217;s that time of the month when I write my Bookslut review (will post link when it&#8217;s up) and the topic of why we cook, and what constitutes &#8220;real&#8221; cooking, and what we go to cookbooks and food websites and food blogs looking for has once again bubbled up to the top of my head. I love my cookbook review gig, in no small part due to the stream of cookbooks that is flowing toward my house these days. I love cookbooks. As a teenager I used to read them like novels, and my very first professional job out of college was working as an editorial assistant on the Best of Gourmet series, and the encyclopedic Gourmet&#8217;s Best Desserts. And yet, so many of the cookbooks that come across my threshhold seem merely to be collections of recipes. There are a lot of interesting recipes, and often I find a combination of ingredients I wouldn&#8217;t have thought of (beets and grapefruit this winter, much to the horror of the Sweetheart). But too often, I&#8217;m left feeling that that&#8217;s all there is, a collection of recipes; that despite the gorgeous photos and all the rest, these cookbooks are more about individual [...]]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://livingsmallblog.com/2010/04/01/what-is-real-cooking/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>1</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Morels, a Primer</title>
		<link>http://livingsmallblog.com/2010/03/30/morels-a-primer/</link>
		<comments>http://livingsmallblog.com/2010/03/30/morels-a-primer/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 30 Mar 2010 21:02:04 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>cmf</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Making]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[life skills]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[foraging]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[morels]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[mushrooms]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://livingsmallblog.com/?p=2313</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Because we are all impatient for spring to arrive, here&#8217;s a link to a terrific article over at Civil Eats about morel hunting for novices. Morels are a good first mushroom to learn to forage for since they really don&#8217;t look like anything poisonous. The closest character is the false morel, but once you&#8217;ve found some true morels, that one is pretty easy to spot. And it won&#8217;t kill you, which is good. So, while we watch the snow fall outside, again, we can dream about tables covered in beautiful morels, skillets filled with morels sizzling in butter with just the tiniest bit of garlic, chicken and morels in cream sauce, and the heady smell of a house full of drying mushrooms. Sigh.]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://livingsmallblog.com/2010/03/30/morels-a-primer/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>1</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Clear Stock: With Thanks to Michael Ruhlman</title>
		<link>http://livingsmallblog.com/2010/01/29/clear-stock-with-thanks-to-michael-ruhlman/</link>
		<comments>http://livingsmallblog.com/2010/01/29/clear-stock-with-thanks-to-michael-ruhlman/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 29 Jan 2010 18:46:28 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>cmf</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Making]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[food]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[life skills]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[cooking]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[frugality]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://livingsmallblog.com/?p=1388</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[We&#8217;ve been cleaning out the freezers to make room for some incoming elk and lamb, and we found several packages of  &#8220;soup bones.&#8221; They were far too meaty for the dogs, so I made a batch of stock. First I roasted them all off in a hot oven with three or four onions cut in half, and half a dozen carrots until everything was nicely carmelized. I was thrilled to discover the tail in the treasure trove as well (when it&#8217;s wrapped in butcher paper, it&#8217;s sometimes a surprise when you unwrap it). After everything browned up, I put it in my biggest stockpot, brought it to the barest of simmers, and left it overnight. Then I cooled it, skimmed off the hard beef fat that had congeled on top, and strained out the vegetables and meat (veggies went to the chickens, and the meat got stripped off the bones and added to the dog food). Now here&#8217;s where the &#8220;thanks to Michael Ruhlman&#8221; part comes in. I&#8217;ve been making stock my entire adult life. It&#8217;s why I always spent a little more for organic chickens, because I was planning to get whatever I could out of them, and over [...]]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://livingsmallblog.com/2010/01/29/clear-stock-with-thanks-to-michael-ruhlman/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>3</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Which Work is Work?</title>
		<link>http://livingsmallblog.com/2010/01/21/which-work-counts/</link>
		<comments>http://livingsmallblog.com/2010/01/21/which-work-counts/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 21 Jan 2010 22:00:22 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>cmf</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Living]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[economics]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[education]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[gardening]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[life skills]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[agriculture]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[work]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://livingsmallblog.com/?p=1306</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Seems we&#8217;re all still reacting to the Flanagan piece slamming school gardens. Here&#8217;s a piece from Civil Eats that quotes Booker T. Washington on the value of physical work. The contempt shown by so much of the middle and upper-middle classes for people who work with their hands is, I&#8217;m convinced, partly responsible for the devastating loss of manufacturing jobs here in America. When you believe that work is only something other people do, and when you believe that those others, because they work with their hands and bodies must necessarily be inferior to you in your nice clean office, in your nice clean house (cleaned by whom?) and when in many parts of the country, even your yard and garden are tended by strangers who arrive once a week in a truck and then leave again, well, if your experience of the physical world is so mediated, then how could you ever know how satisfying physical work can be? Is the real fear behind this school garden backlash that the kids might like it? And then what? Is the real fear that they might want to be farmers or gardeners or carpenters or to actually do something with their [...]]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://livingsmallblog.com/2010/01/21/which-work-counts/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>3</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Don&#8217;t Blame the Environment</title>
		<link>http://livingsmallblog.com/2010/01/21/dont-blame-the-environment/</link>
		<comments>http://livingsmallblog.com/2010/01/21/dont-blame-the-environment/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 21 Jan 2010 19:35:36 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>cmf</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Living]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[life skills]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[environmentalism]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://livingsmallblog.com/?p=1277</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Hmm. I don&#8217;t think being green is the problem here &#8212; seems like these couples have bigger issues. Another dumb lifestyle article from the NY Times. When Trying to Preserve the Planet Strains the Relationship &#8211; NYTimes.com As awareness of environmental concerns has grown, therapists say they are seeing a rise in bickering between couples and family members over the extent to which they should change their lives to save the planet.]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://livingsmallblog.com/2010/01/21/dont-blame-the-environment/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>2</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>The School Garden flap &#8230;</title>
		<link>http://livingsmallblog.com/2010/01/20/the-school-garden-flap/</link>
		<comments>http://livingsmallblog.com/2010/01/20/the-school-garden-flap/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 20 Jan 2010 17:38:01 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>cmf</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Making]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[food]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[life skills]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[education]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[gardens]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[kids]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[vegetables]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[writers]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://livingsmallblog.com/?p=1293</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[While in some ways I hate to give Caitlin Flanagan any more web traffic for her flameball of an article about school gardens, the response has been very heartening. Here&#8217;s a link roundup: Red Herrings Are Not Dinner Food, or why Caitlin Flanagan is WRONG about school gardens &#124; Oakland Local Mag writer: Alice Waters and school gardens are evil An Edible Schoolyard in Durham: How Kids Grow (Video) Samuel Fromartz: Atlantic&#8217;s Caitlin Flanagan Blames Arugula for California&#8217;s Failing Schools Chef Kurt Michael Friese&#8217;s response was probably my favorite, in part because I find the contempt for manual labor among the upper classes both incomprehensible and odious. And even this morning&#8217;s New York Times Food section had a piece on a school in Greenpoint that is poised to build the first edible schoolyard in the New York area. As someone who comes from a long line of experiential educators, as well as someone who watched a number of very very smart family members struggle with dyslexia (and thrive when given something concrete to do), I think anything that gets kids connecting what they&#8217;re learning in the classroom to applications in the real world is a great thing &#8230;]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://livingsmallblog.com/2010/01/20/the-school-garden-flap/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>2</slash:comments>
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