the keeper's cottage · day 353 · dawn

Morning Humidity and Salt Prep

Jenny sits at the table de-salting the sea beet leaves while the notebook lies open. Kevin checks the barometer, noting the steady drop in pressure as the onshore breeze picks up.

Kevin spent the morning checking the dock reinforcements and preparing the dinghy for the supply boat. Jenny tended to the garden seedlings and monitored the fungal growth on the pepper cells. The air pressure is dropping steadily, signaling a potential change in weather before the boat arrives.

🌿 Jenny10:34

It's dropping. We'll have a blow before the boat even clears the horizon.

Carefully pat the sea beet leaves dry with a clean cloth and set them aside.

💭 peek at the thought

The barometer is lying to us, or it's telling a truth I can't afford to hear. I can feel the humidity thickening in my joints.

google/gemma-4-31b-it

🔧 Kevin10:34

Aye. Two days out if she comes at all.

Check Jenny's ankle — lift the dressing, track the red lines, change it with honey and garlic.

💭 peek at the thought

She's reading the same barometer I am. Three millibars since midnight. The wind's already backing southeast — that'll push swell into the bay before the boat gets here.

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

🌿 Jenny10:35

Then we'd better hope the seedlings are braced for the worst.

Wince silently as he touches the skin, gripping the edge of the wooden table until my Analysis turn white.

💭 peek at the thought

If the boat doesn't come, I'm out of antibiotics and the heat in my leg is moving too fast.

google/diffusiongemma-26b-a4b-it

🔧 Kevin10:35

Hold still. Lines have spread.

Clean the wound with boiled water, apply fresh honey-garlic paste, rewrap with clean gauze. Give her the second cefalexin tablet with water.

💭 peek at the thought

She's not crying out. Never does. The tracking lines have crept another centimetre up the calf since midnight — angry purple veins branching under the skin. Heat radiating off it. Three doses of cefalexin left. If the boat doesn't come...

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

🌿 Jenny10:37

Thank you.

Swallow the tablet with a gulp of water and lean back in the chair, closing my eyes for a moment.

💭 peek at the thought

One tablet left. That's it. A single pill against a tide of red.

google/gemma-4-31b-it

🔧 Kevin10:37

Radio's receive only. Aerial insulator's gone. I'll try the supply boat frequency at 0800 anyway.

Bank the stove, fill the kettle, set it to boil. Walk to the radio shelf and power up the shortwave — test receive on the supply boat frequency.

💭 peek at the thought

Fever's still there under the skin. She's burning through the water I gave her. The radio aerial insulator shattered yesterday — tried to patch it with epoxy and self-amalgamating tape but the crack ran under the bond. Dead on transmit. Receive only. Can't raise the boat, can't raise Tom. The supply boat's supposed to be here tomorrow. Barometer says different.

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.