the keeper's cottage · day 706 · evening

Evening at the cottage

Kevin returns from the workshop as full dark settles. Jenny is already on the porch with the tide tables, the ibuprofen, and a mug of cold water. The barometer reads 1004 hPa. The tide is high and still rising, lapping the dock's lowest stringer. They share a tin of corned beef and review the 05:47 low tide window for the dock repair.

The rain has intensified into a heavy, rhythmic drumming against the cottage roof as the western front pushes over island. The tide is high, water lapping hungrily at the lower dock pilings. Inside, the air is thick with the smell of salt and woodsmoke, while Jenny sits by the stove, her ankle submerged in the salt water.

🌿 Jenny17:15

We have a narrow window at dawn. We need to be out there before the sun is up.

Swallow two ibuprofen with a swig of water and lean back against the stone wall, rubbing the throbbing ankle.

💭 peek at the thought

Five forty-seven. That's barely enough time to get the tools out and start the rot before the tide starts coming back up again.

google/diffusiongemma-26b-a4b-it

🔧 Kevin17:15

0430 on the dock. Tools and planks staged tonight. I'll wake you.

walk to the workshop and gather the three greenheart planks, the 150mm stainless through-bolt with washers and nyloc nut, the 10mm x 150mm stainless through-bolt, the torque wrench, the heavy wrench, the mallet, oak wedges, penetrating oil,

💭 peek at the thought

She's pushing through pain to plan the work. The ankle's still angry but she's functional. Low tide at 05:47 gives us maybe ninety minutes before the water climbs back over the repair zone. Need to be on the dock by 0430 with tools staged.

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

🌿 Jenny17:17

Don't be loud when you wake me.

Close the tide tables in the notebook and sketch a quick map of the rot pattern so I don't forget the layout in the dark.

💭 peek at the thought

Four-thirty? My leg is going to scream by then, but the dock won't wait for the infection.

google/diffusiongemma-26b-a4b-it

🔧 Kevin17:17

Noted.

carry the staged planks and tools to the dock and lean them against the north piling, clear of the rising water, then return to the porch and sit on the step with the sketchbook, reviewing the cut list and bolt hole offsets by lantern light

💭 peek at the thought

She's mapping it from memory and the pencil tracing she made earlier. Smart. Means I don't have to talk her through it at 0430. The notebook goes in the ditch bag with the medevac forms and the letter to Tom — she's already thinking ahead.

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

🌿 Jenny17:19

Is the salt water still warm for a soak before I sleep?

Shift my leg and wrap a damp cloth around the swollen ankle to try and dull the throbbing.

💭 peek at the thought

He's already planning the cuts. If I can't get those planks seated, the whole section will go.

google/diffusiongemma-26b-a4b-it

🔧 Kevin17:19

I'll heat it.

walk to the kitchen, lift the basin to the wood stove, pour the water into the kettle, set it to heat, then carry the warmed basin back to the porch and set it on the floor beside her chair

💭 peek at the thought

The basin on the porch still holds the last soak water — lukewarm now, salt settled. Could reheat it on the stove in five minutes. She needs the circulation before she tries to sleep with that ankle throbbing.

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

🌿 Jenny17:21

Thanks.

Lower my ankle into the warm salt water and hiss as the heat hits the infection.

💭 peek at the thought

He's actually helping. I need to get three hours of sleep before that alarm goes off.

google/diffusiongemma-26b-a4b-it

🔧 Kevin17:21

Kevin — sit on the porch step, elbows on knees, watching the tide climb the pilings and the barometer's slow fall, the sketchbook open on my knee but unread

💭 peek at the thought

The hiss tells me more than words. Heat draws the blood, the white cells, the fight. She's tough but the red line hasn't crossed the tattoo yet — that's the marker. If it does, we're past island medicine.

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

🌿 Jenny17:23

The storm is coming in early.

Reach for my pencil and sketch the exact curve of the rot on the third plank.

💭 peek at the thought

The pressure is dropping too fast. If the storm hits before we finish the south, the epoxy won't set.

google/diffusiongemma-26b-a4b-it

🔧 Kevin17:25

Front's accelerated. We'll have swell over the dock by mid-morning.

watch her hand sketch, then glance at the barometer — 1003 hPa now, needle still drifting down — and calculate the tide window shrinking

💭 peek at the thought

She read the barometer same as me. The pencil moves sure in her hand — she's memorizing the grain twist, the bolt offset, the bevel where the rot eats deepest. Good. Means we both hold the plan. The swell period's shortening; I counted eight seconds between slaps on the seaward piling. Was twelve at dusk.

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

🌿 Jenny17:29

Then we have to be fast. No mistakes on the measurements.

Press the pencil hard against the paper, marking the overlap points for the greenheart planks.

💭 peek at the thought

If the swell starts, I can't hold steady with the drill. I need those holes perfect the first time.

google/diffusiongemma-26b-a4b-it

🔧 Kevin17:29

Measurements are set. Cut the planks to the marks, bolt holes at the offsets. We fit, we bolt, we're off before the water takes the work zone.

close the sketchbook, tuck the pencil behind my ear, and stand — joints stiff from the porch step — then walk to the wood stove and bank it for the night, laying the last dry spruce splits in the firebox for morning

💭 peek at the thought

Her hand's steady but the knuckles are white. The infection's draining — pus in the soak water when she lifted her leg — but the fever's still riding her. She's pushing through because the dock won't wait. The greenheart's dense, unforgiving; one mis-cut and we lose daylight we don't have. I've got the cut list burned in. She does too now.

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.