I looked over in Morganna's direction when she introduced herself. If what she was saying about Goldilocks was true, she wouldn't be the only one to have figured it out, and cults had been started by less. Between the IQ and 'households of discord', it could inspire some supremacist movements focused on IQ, or a fundamentalist group that punished 'discord'. That could be worrying.

Other than that, Morganna and the guy raised some pretty good points. Accommodation, a place to farm and supplies had the highest priority. I had no idea how long the workdays were in Italy, though. Around this time of year in Texas, the sun would be setting around 6-7pm, while it wouldn't set until around 9pm at the height of summer, so a 10pm start tomorrow would ideally give them 8 hours of work time, not including lunch breaks. Hopefully the farm would have some farming equipment, too. Like tractors, machetes, saw, clippers, tools, nuts and bolts and generally things that would make their job easier. Maybe even a welding set-up. If the tractor or vehicles ran on diesel, that would ease some of our fuel problems. Maybe.
That was when I felt a hand in my pocket. I started slightly, looking at the guy walking past me while grabbing for my pocket. He looked like the guy from the rafters, and I prepared to chase after him to get whatever he'd taken, but a quick search showed nothing missing. In fact, he'd left a note. Something about a nearby castle, wells, walls, protection and fortifications. It was signed '-M'.

It was a good idea, something we could work towards, but until then we needed a home base to at least [i]start[/i] farming food and water before moving on to bigger projects. Worst case scenario, we could probably build a sturdy wooden wall from, 8-foot thick wooden beams. I'd seen it done with some cattle traps in Texas. It would help us have a safe place to herd livestock and we could probably use it to protect any houses, at least until the castle became an option.
The meeting slowly broke up though, and I gathered the dogs and Chopper and headed home. They were right when they said we'd need more weapons, too. We were probably going to need to go old-school. Sure, we could melt down some of the more useless items for spears and things, but we were probably going to need bows and arrows and things. Even packing your own bullets, shells and powder could only go so far.

I slept relatively well that night, the dogs keeping me warm, but in the morning I was anxious. This was going to be a lot of work and it was a;most a guarantee that some personalities were going to clash, not to mention the uncertainty of things now. Morganna sounded like they were going scouting, so I had to hope they didn't run into any trouble. Or have trouble follow them back.
Saddling up, I made a mental note that I'd need a cart before too long, depending on how Chopper world react to it, and got ready for the day.