!Everything we need --- agk's diary 14 September 2024 @ 14:40 UTC --- written in woods in midori notebook with dip pen, brause blue pumpkin nib, kuretake sumi ink transcribed on X61, model M keys, hp vf15 monitor in kitchen while daughter and Evy nap --- This weekend I'm camping in Rockcastle County with three-year-old daughter. The morning dew's falling from the leaves of the trees high above under a clear blue morning sky. Droplets collect and are shed like light rain. I sit on a stool by the tent. Daughter's asleep in her fluffy onesie pajamas. The morning insects start their din. One after another each morning bird wakes and announces its presence. I'm in my nightgown with a denim jacket against the cold. I like the damp chill. Daughter's awake. "Mama," she says on waking. "Why are you outside?" "I'm writing words on my paper." "I can't see you," she says. "Why can't I see you?" "I put a blanket on the tent. The trees are dripp- ing water." "I don't want it to drip on our heads." We slept with the rain fly off but nearby. When I heard the heavy dewfall begin I half put it on. "I'm ready to come outside," daughter says. She unzipped the flap and her onesie. She sits on her green potty beside me pooping, fascinatedly watching an inchworm. In the woods I'm at ease. Later, after breakfast, Evy'll come get first daughter. I'll go to Gooch- land Cave for the first time. Now I'm just in half- wild woods with my daughter. Everything we could possibly need is radically simplified but close to hand. We'll be just as comfortable in a cold downpour as a crisp fall day. Our hot breakfast's already ready in the thermos. Daughter wants to read an Ant and Bee book while she poops. I don't have to rummage for it. It's right here. I don't know why it puts me so at ease to be able to inventory everything in my head, know where it all is, how hard it would be to pick up and carry somewhere else (not hard for daughter and me), what we have to do next (not much). There's the hammock. Here's the tent, potty, stool. Small pile of stuff under a tarp. That's all. I got a ride down here so Evy could use the car. So it's just daughter and I in the woods, with everything we need.