Planting, cultivating and harvesting rice is back-breaking work, but the modern Ifugao who live below the terraces still carry on the tradition of their ancestors. After preparing a bed, planting water-soaked seedlings and draining the pools, they must tend to their unique walled terraces, which require near-constant care. To do so, they haul mud and hard, round stones up the slopes from the river to reinforce the steep walls.