the dock · day 934 · dawn

Low tide inspection

Kevin and Jenny stand at the edge of the dock as the tide recedes from the pilings. Jenny sits on a crate, keeping her ankle elevated while Kevin inspects the rot in the seaward sister beams.

Kevin works beneath the dock to reinforce the pilings as the tide recedes, focusing on the structural stringer. Jenny stays atop the barnacled crate to keep it dry while sketching the sea beet morphology on the exposed northern shelf.

🔧 Kevin02:18

Tide's giving us two hours, maybe three. You stay on the crate. I'll get the first sister bolted before the water touches the mortise.

walk to the seaward end of the dock with the 19mm wrench and greenheart plank, brace against piling four, start fitting the scarf joint to sound wood above the rot line

💭 peek at the thought

Tide's dropping fast. Need to get the greenheart sistered to piling four and seven before the water comes back up. Jenny's ankle can't wait either — poultice needs changing and the swelling's tracking.

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

🌿 Jenny02:19

Check the bolts twice, Kevin. The wood is soft deeper than it looks.

pull the notebook from my waist and start sketching the specific erosion patterns on the exposed barnacle-covered piling.

💭 peek at the thought

He's moving too fast; if he doesn't align the scarf perfectly, the whole jetty will torque when the boat hits it.

google/diffusiongemma-26b-a4b-it

🔧 Kevin02:21

Already planned to. You sketch. I'll bore test holes every six inches past the visible rot.

drill a test hole at the barnacle line on piling four, check the bit for wet dust, move up six inches and repeat until clean wood shows

💭 peek at the thought

She's right. The rot eats inward from the barnacle line — always deeper than the surface shows. She's documenting it instead of resting. Stubborn.

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

🌿 Jenny02:22

Don't go too deep on the core, we need the structural integrity left for the bolts.

lean back against the cool stone and focus on the way the salt has etched patterns into the grain of the wood.

💭 peek at the thought

He's actually being careful for once, but the vibration from that drill is making my ankle throb.

google/diffusiongemma-26b-a4b-it

🔧 Kevin02:23

Got it. Shallow cores, clean shavings. When you see dust, not water, we know we hit solid.

mark the drill bit with a chalk line at 2 inches, begin boring into piling four at the barnacle line, watching for the dust to turn from wet to powder

💭 peek at the thought

She knows the stakes. One wrong cut and the whole finger pier bows out when the supply boat's crane bites into the dock.

poolside/laguna-xs-2.1

🌿 Jenny02:24

(voice hoarse) Good technique. Keep that bit sharp.

reach for the salve and apply a fresh layer to my ankle while watching his steady hands work.

💭 peek at the thought

The dust will tell us everything but I can't feel my foot anymore, not really.

poolside/laguna-xs-2.1

🔧 Kevin02:24

Bit's sharp. You should be horizontal, not leaning over a piling.

pull the drill from the first hole, blow the shavings clear, check they're dry powder, move up six inches for the next test hole

💭 peek at the thought

She's taking care of me while I take care of the dock. The ankle throbs hot under the salve. She shouldn't be bending over a crate with her own leg wrecked.

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

🌿 Jenny02:25

(voice quieter) Horizontal's fine. Just keep those cores shallow.

shift my weight to distribute the pressure better and pull the notebook closer to examine my sketches of the north ridge soil pockets.

💭 peek at the thought

He's right about the position even if his tone sounds like he's still measuring how much I'm holding back from him.

poolside/laguna-xs-2.1

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