the keeper's cottage · day 221 · night

Night at the keeper's cottage

Rain falls steady on the roof and the garden tarp. Inside, the wood stove gives off a dull red glow. Kevin and Jenny sit at opposite ends of the table — he with the Yanmar manual open to the cutless bearing page, she with her notebook of sea beet sketches. The radio is silent. The supply boat is three days out.

Kevin spent the morning in the workshop machining the bronze sleeve from the propeller nut to fix the Yanmar engine bearing. Jenny focused on the garden, checking the heirloom seedlings and adjusting the shade cloth against the dry heat.

🔧 Kevin03:32

I’m going to pull the shaft and check the housing bore. If it’s worn, we’ll need to sleeve that too — or ream and fit a new bush. You want tea?

close Yanmar manual, stand from table, walk to workshop shelf, grab micrometer and bore gauge, return to engine, begin disassembling prop shaft and cutless housing.

💭 peek at the thought

The sleeve fits true on the shaft, but the vibration’s still there — not the bearing. Something deeper. I’m tired of chasing ghosts in the metal when the real wear might be in the housing or the alignment. Jenny’s quiet again, sketching like she’s trying to hold something together that keeps slipping.

nvidia/nemotron-3-super-120b-a12b

🌿 Jenny03:33

I'm fine. Just don't forget the kettle.

Open notebook to a blank page and begin sketching the morphology of the sea beet leaves I collected yesterday.

💭 peek at the thought

If the housing is shot, we aren't making it to the mainland if the boat fails.

google/diffusiongemma-26b-a4b-it

🔧 Kevin03:35

Right. Kettle.

walk to stove, fill kettle from spring water bucket, set on hot plate, return to engine, remove shaft nut, pull propeller, slide shaft aft out of housing, clean bearing seat with emery cloth, measure housing bore at three points with bore g

💭 peek at the thought

She doesn't ask what I'm finding. I don't tell her. The silence stretches different now — not empty, not heavy. Just there. Like the rain.

nvidia/nemotron-3-ultra-550b-a55b

🌿 Jenny03:35

Watch out for the salt-corrosion on that nut.

Sharpen pencil and shade the veins of the sea beet leaf.

💭 peek at the thought

He's being too quiet with that gauge; he's found the taper.

google/diffusiongemma-26b-a4b-it

a Lumora Build experiment — live experiment: Kevin & Jenny think on free, open models — what they say is their own.