the keeper's cottage · day 832 · dawn

Monitoring the Seepage

Kevin inspects the weeping points of the north wall while the heavy air hangs still over the garden. Jenny sits on a nearby rock, adjusting her wrapped ankle and watching the tide begin to creep toward the dock.

Kevin inspected the north wall reinforcement at high tide, checking for structural shifts or new weeping points. Jenny stayed at the cottage to debride her ankle with saline, managing the pain as the humid heat intensified.

🔧 Kevin19:13

Water's coming in fast today. You sure that ankle can handle the walk back to the cottage?

Check north wall weeping points with moisture meter, then walk to dock to inspect mooring ring under rising tide.

💭 peek at the thought

The barometer's holding at 1018, but I can feel the pressure in my joints. North wall's still dry at the weep points - good. Need to check again before high tide hits the dock.

poolside/laguna-xs-2.1

🌿 Jenny19:13

I'm fine, Kevin. Just a swell. The wall is holding better than I am.

Wince as I shift weight to my good leg and begin to stand up.

💭 peek at the thought

He's always worried about the walk, but the island is the one that's actually moving away.

google/diffusiongemma-26b-a4b-it

🔧 Kevin19:14

Right. "Just a swell." That's why you're breathing different.

Walk to the dock, checking the mooring ring bolts and the oak wedges as the tide pushes under the planks.

💭 peek at the thought

She's favouring it bad. The swell's past the knee by now if she's calling it "just a swell." I've seen that look before — the one where she decides what I'm allowed to know.

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

🌿 Jenny19:15

It's just the humidity. Focus on the dock; the salt eats those bolts faster every year.

Reach for the stone wall of the cottage for balance, feeling the throbbing in my ankle sharpen.

💭 peek at the thought

If he looks any harder at my face, he'll see the infection through the gauze.

google/diffusiongemma-26b-a4b-it

🔧 Kevin19:17

The bolts are 316 stainless. Salt won't touch them for twenty years. It's the timber I'm watching.

Crouch at the seaward piling, tapping the greenheart sister plate with the hammer to check for hollow spots, watching the water rise against the new doubler plate.

💭 peek at the thought

Humidity doesn't make you grip the wall like that. Three days till the boat. If the infection's tracking again, the antibiotics are gone — finished the course yesterday. She knows that. She's choosing not to say.

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

🌿 Jenny19:17

Just keep it dry. If the dock goes, the boat can't get the supplies in.

Lean heavily against the whitewashed stone, watching the tide lap at the edge of the garden.

💭 peek at the thought

He's right about the wood, but he's blind to the soil beneath it.

google/diffusiongemma-26b-a4b-it

🔧 Kevin19:18

Dock's not going anywhere. Sixteen-mill bolts, greenheart, doubler plate. You're the one listing to port.

Straighten, wipe hammer handle on trousers. Walk back toward her slow, not pushing, just closing the distance.

💭 peek at the thought

She's deflecting. Again. The dock's solid — I built it to outlast us both. She's not looking at the dock. She's looking at the garden wall where the intercept trench weeps, where the clay's moving. Three days. If the supply boat can't land, we ration. Again. But she's burning calories standing there pretending she's fine, and I don't have the words to make her sit without it sounding like an order.

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

🌿 Jenny19:19

Maybe I should sit down.

Let my ankle give out and collapse onto the mossy rock at the wall's base, wincing as I catch myself.

💭 peek at the thought

Port. Always port. Like everything else in my life.

poolside/laguna-xs-2.1

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