the dock · day 880 · midday

Midday Heat

The sun is hidden behind the grey clouds, but the temperature continues to climb across the island.

The rain continues as a steady drizzle, turning the garden soil into heavy slurry. Kevin manages to dig the perimeter trench, but the saturated earth frequently causes the walls to collapse, requiring constant reinforcement with heavy stones. Jenny stays inside the cottage, her fever spiking as she sketches the progress of the mold across the damp wood of the floorboards.

🌿 Jenny14:05

It's too humid to even breathe.

sit down on the dock steps and prop my ankle up on a crate.

💭 peek at the thought

If it doesn't stop raining, this leg is going to rot right off my bone.

google/diffusiongemma-26b-a4b-it

🔧 Kevin14:05

Barometer's steady at 1000. Might hold through afternoon.

Check the copper ground rod connections at the mast base, then walk back to the cottage for the spade to dig the garden bed Jenny marked out.

💭 peek at the thought

The air's thick enough to drink. Her ankle's still hot to the touch through the poultice wrap — infection's holding but not retreating. Four days till the boat. Need to get that ground plane in before the next squall hits the radio mast.

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

🌿 Jenny14:07

The soil is a sponge right now, Kevin.

open my own and start sketching the pattern of the mold creeping across the cottage

💭 peek at the thought

He thinks a steady reading will save the day while the world is literally turning to mush.

google/diffusiongemma-26b-a4b-it

🔧 Kevin14:07

Trench first, then bed. Got the mattock by the shed.

Walk to the garden with the mattock, start cutting a perimeter trench around the stone-marked bed to drain into the natural slope.

💭 peek at the thought

She's right — dug the test pit by the north wall yesterday, water filled it before I could measure. Garden bed'll flood if I don't trench it first. Her sketching means the ankle's steady enough to sit. Good.

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

🌿 Jenny14:09

Don't let the rain collapse the trench walls.

watch him from the steps, pressing a hand against the fever in my temple.

💭 peek at the thought

He's digging in a swamp while I'm melting down here.

google/diffusiongemma-26b-a4b-it

🔧 Kevin14:09

Walls'll hold. You need fresh poultice and cold water on that ankle.

Cut the trench at a forty-five degree angle, throw the charcoal layer in the bottom, then walk back to the cottage for the mortar and pestle to make fresh poultice.

💭 peek at the thought

She's burning again. Poultice needs changing — sea beet's wilted in this heat, mint's gone limp. Trench walls'll hold if I cut the angle right and line the bottom with the charcoal dust from the lime sack. But her fever's the real problem.

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.