Harvest date was assigned

Well, the JA (Japanese Agricultural group) drew lots and we are supposed to harvest on Oct. 8. I can't believe it, for the past 15 or so years, we've harvested around the end of October - I always associate the harvest with Halloween. It seems so early. Since the local mill can only handle a certain amount, the JA reps go around and calculate the harvest from each field and then put the fields into a lottery. If you have several fields, you would likely harvest on several different dates. If your rice isn't ready or you aren't available or it rains or there's a typhoon...it's bad luck. You have to try to trade with someone or rework the schedule. We just had a heavy rainstorm that flattened parts of our fields- the base of the stems must have been too wet and the wind just hit in such a way that all the rice fell over, as if a giant(bigger than me) stepped on the crop. The rice will be ready and we can still cut the fallen stalks.