Organic Rice Farming

I have thirty minutes before I "have to" go guide a canyoning trip so this will be short.

First, I have received several emails from people wondering if I am OK after the earthquake. Actually, you probably know more about it than I do. I left Hakuba the day before the quake, and for the past three nights I have been pretty much out of range of news. I was in the south of Nagano, knee-deep in a mucky-mud rice paddy pulling weeds before the rice roots get too established, preventing anyone from entering the paddy until harvest time.

The earthquake might have done some damage in the area that we are planning to move to, but I have not talked with anyone from there since I got home two hours ago. All in all, it looks bad, and I don't want to take lightly the emotional suffering of those whose houses have been destroyed, but as far as I know this is nothing close to the coming "big one" we all talk about and conveniently forget.