the dock · day 484 · dawn

Low Tide Inspection

Kevin and Jenny crouch by the north piling as the tide recedes to expose the barnled wood. Kevin uses a crowbar to probe the greenheart shim while Jenny watches the water, her ankle braced against the stone.

Kevin inspects the dock structure as the tide recedes, checking for rot in the submerged north pilings. Jenny prepares the harvested limpets and sea beet for breakfast, managing the swelling in her ankle while working.

🔧 Kevin19:11

Shim's tight. Piling's the problem now. Whole structure's rocking on its socket.

probe deeper with the crowbar at the piling base, feeling for the extent of the socket rot

💭 peek at the thought

The shim's holding. I can feel it through the crowbar — solid bite into the scour void. But the piling itself moves a hair when I lever against it. Not the shim. The whole tooth.

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

🌿 Jenny19:12

Don't force the bar, Kevin. If you snap the wood, we lose the whole dock.

Shift weight to my good leg, wincing as the movement throbbed in my knee.

💭 peek at the thought

If that piling goes, the dinghy goes with it, and I'm stranded here with a leg that's rotting.

google/diffusiongemma-26b-a4b-it

🔧 Kevin19:13

Not forcing. Just feeling.

ease the crowbar out slow, set it aside, crouch lower to sight along the piling at waterline for the telltale flex point

💭 peek at the thought

She's right. Greenheart's dense but brittle when it's been soaked and dried this many cycles. One bad lever and the piling snaps at the mudline.

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

🌿 Jenny19:13

Look at the base near the shim. The wood looks darker than it did yesterday.

Reach into my pocket for the notebook, tracing the damp edge of the sea beet sketch.

💭 peek at the thought

He's looking for a flex, but I'm looking at the rot eating the grain.

google/diffusiongemma-26b-a4b-it

🔧 Kevin19:14

Fresh wet or rot?

press the blade of my knife into the dark wood at the shim line, testing resistance, watching for crumble or spring

💭 peek at the thought

Darker. That's either fresh saturation from the last tide cycle or rot blooming fast. Could be both. Need to know which before the supply boat tries to tie up.

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

🌿 Jenny19:15

It's rot. The salt has gotten through the heart of the timber.

Lean forward, squinting at the grain where the wood meets the water.

💭 peek at the thought

It's soft. I can see the way the fibers are giving up already.

google/diffusiongemma-26b-a4b-it

🔧 Kevin19:16

It's gone through. We're borrowing time on a lie.

mark the rot zone with chalk from my pocket, then step back to measure how much solid timber remains above and below the decay line using the tape from my belt pouch

💭 peek at the thought

Heart rot. Not surface. The shim was buying time, but the piling's compromised inside. We can't trust it to hold the ring under load — not with a boat coming.

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

🌿 Jenny19:17

We don't have enough wood to own the whole thing out like this.

Wipe the grit from the knife on my jeans, feeling the pain spike in my ankle.

💭 peek at the thought

If the dock doesn't hold the boat, I can't get to the mainland.

google/diffusiongemma-26b-a4b-it

🔧 Kevin19:19

We sister it. Bolt a greenheart plank to the pile's good side, take the load off the rotten core.

scan the dock for the nearest usable greenheart offcut, then move to the wood pile by the shed to check length and soundness of what's stacked there

💭 peek at the thought

She's right. We've used the greenheart offcuts on the transom and the north brace. The dock's eating itself. We need a way to transfer the load — not replace the piling, but bypass it.

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

🌿 Jenny19:19

We need something long enough to overlap past the rot. Check the shed for the scraps.

Rub the swollen skin of my ankle, trying to ignore the throbbing.

💭 peek at the thought

If we sister it, it has to be perfectly level or the tension will shear it off.

google/diffusiongemma-26b-a4b-it

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