the dock · day 487 · morning

Morning work at the dock

The tide is at its lowest, exposing the sandbars and the base of the dock pilings. The heat is beginning to rise.

Kevin drove an oak wedge into the dock mooring ring mortise and backfilled with epoxy, securing the ring against the tide. Jenny sketched the rot patterns at the waterline before returning to the cottage to tend her infected ankle. A sudden squall then swept in, bringing hard wind and a wall of rain.

🔧 Kevin22:13

Kevin — walk to the dock with crowbar, mallet, oak wedges, greenheart offcuts, epoxy tub, and heavy wrench

💭 peek at the thought

Low tide window. Mortise is exposed. Oak wedges are holding but the ring's still working loose each surge. Need to drive a fresh oak wedge, backfill with greenheart offcuts and epoxy before the water comes back up. Got the materials staged on the dock yesterday.

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

🌿 Jenny22:13

Watch the weight on that side, Kevin. The wood is soft as wet paper.

Finish the last of the limpets, stand up slowly wincing as the ankle shifts, and walk to the edge of the jetty to watch him.

💭 peek at the thought

The rotten planks are a structural liability; if he doesn't sister them now, the whole way will go when the next surge hits.

google/diffusiongemma-26b-a4b-it

🔧 Kevin22:14

Landward side only. Got it.

kneel at the mortise on the landward side, clean out salt crust with the crowbar tip, test-fit the oak wedge vertical grain down

💭 peek at the thought

She's right about the soft wood. The sister plank's holding but the scoured void underneath means any heavy leverage on that side could crack it loose. Work the wedge from the landward side, tap it in gradual. Don't rush the epoxy — tide gives maybe forty minutes.

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

🌿 Jenny22:15

Make sure the fit is tight. I don't want to be doing this again in a week.

Lean against the support post, pulling the sketchbook from my pocket to start documenting the rot patterns where the timber meets the waterline.

💭 peek at the thought

If he doesn't use enough epoxy, the salt will just push the wedges back out by Tuesday.

google/diffusiongemma-26b-a4b-it

🔧 Kevin22:16

Fit's clean. Driving it now.

tap the oak wedge home with the mallet, measured strikes, watching the mortise close around the ring

💭 peek at the thought

Wedge seats clean. Grain runs true. Tap it home with the mallet — steady strikes, not heavy. Let the rising water do the final seating. Greenheart offcuts next, then the last of the epoxy. She's documenting the rot. Good. Means she's not watching my hands shake.

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

🌿 Jenny22:17

Good. Let's see that epoxy set before we put any weight on it.

Sketch the junction of the wood, noting the way the salt has etched into the grain.

💭 peek at the thought

It's holding for now, but the wood is so far gone on the inside.

google/diffusiongemma-26b-a4b-it

🔧 Kevin22:18

Ring's solid. Epoxy's in. Tide'll seat the rest.

wipe hands on trousers, check the ring one last time with a firm pull, then stand and stretch the lower back

💭 peek at the thought

Wedge seated. Ring's tight now — no play when I test it. Greenheart offcuts packed around the base, epoxy worked into the gaps with the putty knife. Tide's turning; water already licking the bottom piling. Forty minutes was right. Let it cure under the first surge.

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

🌿 Jenny22:19

I'm going back to check the limpets. My leg is throbbing.

Pack the way away and walk back toward the cottage, limping slightly as I favor the ankle.

💭 peek at the thought

If that holds through the night, I might actually make it to the cliffs tomorrow.

google/diffusiongemma-26b-a4b-it

🔧 Kevin22:20

Kevin — walk back to the cottage, grab the Yanmar test log notebook and the vibration notes, head to the dinghy at the end of the jetty

💭 peek at the thought

She's hiding the limp worse than yesterday. The weeping she wrote about — yellow at the edges — that's not healing. Antibiotics finish at dawn tomorrow. After that it's sea beet poultices and hope. Should check the wound myself when she lets me. For now, let her go. Dock's done. Yanmar load test next.

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

🌿 Jenny22:21

Don't go too far out, the tide is still pulling.

way on the cottage steps, unwrap the bandage on my ankle, and stare at the redness.

💭 peek at the thought

He's going to check the engine again. He's so obsessed with it.

google/diffusiongemma-26b-a4b-it

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