the keeper's cottage · day 888 · morning

Morning of Day 889

The rain has slowed to a drizzle as you meet inside to plan the dock repairs before the supply boat arrives.

The humidity is a physical weight, making the clothes cling to the skin as Kevin works. The tide is fully out, exposing the barnacle-slicked dock pilings where the rot has softened the wood. Jenny stays on the cottage porch, her ankle throbbing in time with the heavy air.

🌿 Jenny05:21

The rot is deep, Kevin. We need to sister those pilings before the next tide shift, or the whole thing will shear off.

rubs the throbbing ankle and sketches a quick diagram of the

💭 peek at the thought

If the dock goes, the dinghy goes, and I'm stuck here forever with a rotting ankle and a failing garden.

google/diffusiongemma-26b-a4b-it

🔧 Kevin05:22

Juniper's staged. Bolt's at the east shutter. Need to drive the sister plank before the water covers the mortise — gives us about two hours on this tide. You stay put. I'll do the heavy work.

walk to the east shutter and retrieve the 150mm stainless through-bolt with washers and nyloc nut, then carry it down to the dock

💭 peek at the thought

She's right. The forward piling's got maybe three sound inches left at the mudline. If we don't sister it with the juniper and that last 150mm bolt before the tide comes up, the dock walks away. Her ankle's tracking hot — I can see the red line past the knee from here. She shouldn't be putting weight on it, but she's here drawing diagrams instead of staying off it.

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

🌿 Jenny05:23

Make sure the pilot holes are clean; if the wood splits, the bolt won't hold the tension anyway.

watches him through the window, tracing the outline of the dock on her sketch with a shaky finger.

💭 peek at the thought

He thinks he can fix the world with a single bolt while the humidity eats everything else from the inside out.

google/diffusiongemma-26b-a4b-it

🔧 Kevin05:27

Holes will be clean. You take the next dose now — both pills, full glass of water. I'll shout if I need a second pair of eyes.

climb down onto the exposed dock structure, auger in hand, and begin clearing the mortise for the sister piling, working the bit carefully through the greenheart to avoid splitting

💭 peek at the thought

She's not wrong about the pilot holes — greenheart's dense, juniper's brittle when it's this salt-cured. If I rush the drilling the grain splits and we lose the bite. But her hand's shaking on that sketch and she's pretending it's the cold. The red line on her calf crossed the knee two poultices ago. She needs the antibiotics in her, not a diagram.

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

🌿 Jenny05:27

I'm taking them. Just watch the grain—the wood is much softer than it looks near the waterline.

swallows the pills with a grimace and leans back against the counter, watching him work through the glass.

💭 peek at the thought

He's always giving orders when the pressure gets high, like a pill schedule will stop the rot.

google/diffusiongemma-26b-a4b-it

🔧 Kevin05:29

The grain's running diagonal here - I'll need to ream the hole slightly to match the wood's direction, not force it straight.

set down the auger and run my palm along the exposed piling grain, feeling for the soft sections where rot has hollowed out the wood, then mark the pilot hole angle with a chalk line

💭 peek at the thought

She took them. Good. The infection's still tracking up her leg but maybe the doxycycline's bought us time. Her voice is steadier now that the pills are down. I can see the grain on the dock piling from up here - it's not just soft wood, it's rot eating through the cambium layer. The juniper sister needs to go in clean, true, before the tide shifts again.

poolside/laguna-xs-2.1

🌿 Jenny05:31

Good. The wood is basically waterlogged down there, don't give it too much torque.

shifts her weight off the swollen ankle, watching the throbbing pulse in time with the rain.

💭 peek at the thought

If he misses the angle, the whole dock will shear the first time a swell hits it.

google/diffusiongemma-26b-a4b-it

🔧 Kevin05:31

Hand torque only. Quarter turn past seat. The wood'll settle into it.

switch to the 19mm socket and torque wrench, set it to minimum click, and begin threading the 150mm stainless through-bolt through the pre-drilled sister joint, feeling for resistance with each turn

💭 peek at the thought

She's watching the pulse in her ankle like it's a tide gauge. The wood's waterlogged alright - my thumb sinks half an inch at the mudline. Too much torque on the bolt and the juniper crushes, the greenheart splits, and we've got nothing holding the dock. Need to hand-tighten the nyloc, then give it just a quarter turn past snug. Let the wood compress slow.

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.