The farmer

Hi Natty!  How are you today?  I hope you are feeling and doing great.  I want you to not worry about a thing, because things will turn out just great for us inshaAllah.  Yeah it's true that there are a lot of "little girls lost" out there, but you are not one of them.  I found you, so you are MY girl.  So please be patient, have faith and pray.

I suddenly got the urge to grow my own produce.  Yeah I had some seeds in my cooler, so I planted them in pots, because there were some pots with soil left over from the roses.  So I started up some tomatoes and cilantro.  They sprouted quickly, unused seeds keep quite well in the cooler.  The cilantro should do OK, but tomatoes usually get overwhelmed by tiny moths which plague the underside of the leaves.  Since tomato leaves are fuzzy, the fuzziness provides insulation from bug spray.  Not that I expect to do better this time, but I am prepared to be more militant in fighting off the bugs.  InshaAllah.  I don't have much fortune when it comes to growing crops.  Most of what grows around here, I don't eat.  And as you all have observed, my mango farming was plagued with political pests.  But I dug up some holes in the yard, and used the soil I used on the mangoes to plant some okra and eggplant.  The soil in my yard is rocky, so tomatoes don't fare well but it should be OK for okra and eggplant.  I'm growing the seeds directly into the soil this time instead of transferring them from seedlings, then policing them from weeds from the earliest stage.  If the seed isn't fertile, then I'll just keep on planting another seed until I come up with a strong seedling.  InshaAllah, this will work great.

Windy

Hi Natty!  Whatcha up to?  I hope you are having a marvelous time.  The rest of us are hoping to catch a glimpse of your fabulous life as a supermodel, hoping that you would show us some of the behind-the-scenes shots, but I guess you can't, huh?  People are talking up a storm about you, as usual.  That's because you're so beautiful, my love.  You're MY girl.  I love you, and don't you forget that.

It's the same old over here for me, but very windy.  I'm trying to stick to budget by not spending for the next 3 days, but I had to buy water today.  I think I can get away with not spending anything tomorrow, but I have to buy lunch on Sunday.  Then after that, I can get some basic groceries.  I've gone back to growing my own produce.  I'm average at best as a farmer.  The soil in my yard isn't very good, so I have to grow produce in pots.  Hm, I need eggplant.  I would rather be doing computer or music work.  So I guess it means that there's nothing special on the menu.  Rice with eggs for lunch, I'll be heating up the chili later.  My Mom did give me some rice and stuff this afternoon.  Thanks, Mom.

Just another average day

Hi Natty!  How are you feeling today, my beautiful Sweetheart?  I hope you are feeling healthy and confident.  Yeah, it's a crazy world and it's OK to be scared, just put your fear in the right place.  Put your fear in God, pray for help, that God will take care of the details that are beyond your reach.  Don't you worry about a thing, my dearest.  Everything will turn out just great, inshaAllah.

Oh, it's just another average day for me.  I did some vacuuming for my Mom in the morning, then went out to buy some produce.  If it seems that I'm not eating much, I have the money but I'm just trying to stick to my budget.  Discipline, you know?  So I finish off what I have.  I had some seeds in the cooler, so I planted some tomatoes and cilantro.  I made some dough, but I still had one dough ball left.  So I made a pizza crust, used "sambal tumis" (blended chillies, onions and "belacan" (fermented shrimp) fried in oil until saturated) as pizza sauce, then diced up some burgers and onions for toppings, baked it and had a cheeseless pizza for dinner.  Yeah it would be better with cheese, but alhamdulillah.  I'm going for 3 more days before I start spending again.  I don't think I'll make it though.  There's always some sort of mundane emergency.  C'est la vie, huh?

Red ants

Hi Natty!  How are you today?  I noticed you have been shuffling your Instagram around somewhat, very subtle stuff.  I want to tell you again how proud I am of you that you chose to finish school, in spite of all the big money that you were immersed in at the time.  If I had done the same as you, I would be working a 8 to 5 job right now, and married with kids.  Instead I went straight to work, and until this day I have no money.  God gave me music instead.  Alhamdulillah.

Nothing much to report today.  I did some tidying up of the yard, cut some shrub, disposed of some old coconuts.  There were a lot of large red ants scurrying around, but they didn't latch on to me too bad.  There are all sorts of ants around here, from the tiny ones about a 16th of an inch long ( I like to call those "death ants") to the big red ones about half an inch long.  I like to call those "army ants", though technically they aren't.  They're just big, red and mean.  I had a dream about those ants last night.  They didn't do anything, they were just there.  Sure I know what it means!  MashaAllah!  😃

Good potato, bad potato

Hi Natty!  How are you today, my darling?  Are you having fun?  I hope you are having tons of fun being a beautiful supermodel, and keeping yourself safe at the same time.  Things are OK here for me, just the usual things to do.  I am posting a little earlier than usual, it is Tuesday and I want to be at the mosque by sunset.  I've been eating super simple lately, I dunno, just felt like it I suppose.  I'm sure I'll go back to experimenting again eventually.  I had beef and mash potatoes for lunch.  Simple huh?  I had suspicions about these particular potatoes though, so I kept it simple to see what it would do to me.  And yes, the mash potato gave me the runs.  I don't know where they grow these potatoes, but I'm not buying them anymore.  I thought at first it was ridiculous that plain potatoes would hurt my stomach, but so be it.  Later I had some potato chips, and that didn't hurt my stomach.  Good potato.