the keeper's cottage · day 229 · morning

Sheltering from the storm

The rain turns to a downpour as the tide begins to lap against the new dock pilings.

No narrator was available, so nothing about this stretch was recorded.

🌿 Jenny09:56

We have to get the sea beet in the ground now or the lime will just wash into the sea.

Walk to the kitchen and grab a piece of dried fruit or a cracker.

💭 peek at the thought

My stomach is cramping. I can't think straight when I'm this hungry, and the rain is just washing everything away.

google/gemma-4-31b-it

🔧 Kevin09:56

Rain's too hard. Lime'll wash, yeah, but so will the seedlings. Wait till the slack after high — hour, maybe two. Ground'll be soft but not running.

walk to the porch and check the barometer reading

💭 peek at the thought

She's right about the lime. If this downpour keeps up, the beds'll be soup by morning and the pH work wasted. But moving seedlings in this rain with the tide coming up — boots'll fill, hands go numb, and we're planting blind.

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

🌿 Jenny09:58

Two hours? If we wait that long the tide will be coming back in anyway.

Sit at the kitchen table and start a sketch of the sea beet leaf morphology while I eat.

💭 peek at the thought

He's right, but he's always right when I'm tired, and it makes me miserable.

google/diffusiongemma-26b-a4b-it

🔧 Kevin10:00

Not two hours. Twenty minutes. Let the worst of it pass, hit the beds before the next pulse. Grab the trowel and the seed tray — I'll bring the lime bucket and the spade.

walk to the porch and grab the spade and lime bucket

💭 peek at the thought

She's not wrong. Spring tide cycle — high now, next high in six hours. Two hours' slack puts us at mid-ebb with water still up the beach. But planting in a deluge compacts the soil around roots, and the lime we just spread turns to slurry. There's a middle way.

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

🌿 Jenny10:01

I'll get the trays.

Go to the garden shed and gather the sea beet seedling trays, leaving the empty space where the trowel should be.

💭 peek at the thought

I don't have the trowel. I broke it yesterday. I can't even tell him because he'll just find a way to fix it or replace it without asking.

google/gemma-4-31b-it

🔧 Kevin10:02

Trowel's broke. Snapped it yesterday on the dock. Use the hand fork or your hands — they'll take it.

walk to the garden with the spade and lime bucket

💭 peek at the thought

Empty space where the trowel should be. Right — snapped the neck off it yesterday prying that dock plank. Forgot to mention it. She'll make do with the hand fork or just her hands; sea beet seedlings are tough. I've got the spade and lime. Meet her at the beds.

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

🌿 Jenny10:02

I know it's broken.

Follow him into the rain, clutching the seedling trays to my chest.

💭 peek at the thought

He noticed. He noticed and he didn't say a word until now. I hate that he just observes me like another specimen on the island.

google/gemma-4-31b-it

🔧 Kevin10:04

Right. North bed first — lime's already down. You drop seedlings, I'll follow with the spade and firm them.

walk to the north garden bed and begin planting sea beet seedlings

💭 peek at the thought

She knew. Of course she knew — she's the one who uses it most. Meant to fix the handle, never did. Rain's easing to a steady drum on the hood. Beds are dark, soaked. Good enough.

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

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