I should show the gardening part of this thread to my wife. She's the gardener in my family (and a botanist with an M.Sc. on top of it). Though I'll do my my share this spring to keep her happy.
To get back to the sub-thread I was in earlier. I was pondering my training and watching the video of my shodan exam. In it, there was an ukemi section in which Skip Chapman tossed me around the mat. I then browsed through the latest USAF news and read about Skip Chapman starting the Aikido Instructors Organization (
http://www.aikidocg.com/index.html) offering business solutions for making an aikido dojo profitable. I guess it is a small world.
Good to know there are people working to make aikido a sustainable occupation. Of course, this doesn't deal with the issue of producing qualified instructors. But I do feel that these kind of ideas will help keep aikido healthy and relevant in our society. It is depressing when a good instructor gives up and closes shop because he doesn't have a business model.