From the journal of John Archer, the Archivist, May 16

May 16, 2017

We had a meeting this afternoon with all the teens and adults of both groups and discussed how everyone was feeling about combining together. It was decided that we will start moving in tomorrow. Linda, Aaron, Williams and I were given a tour after the meeting and we are making a plan on who sleeps where. I think we should put some space between Jenna and Sean, just to be safe. They are mooning over each other and spend as much time together as they can every day. It's cute, but, they are still young. There are at least ten bedrooms, so everyone will have to share. We can also turn a couple of the offices and other rooms into bedrooms, just not the theater. Everyone is excited to watch a movie or two.

We looked over the kitchen and Amanda, Jesus and Anthony are excited to be able to cook in a real kitchen again. The food situation is really set, even the freezer has food meat and vegetables in it. The range is by Viking, the appliances are all stainless steel and the cabinets are a rich wood. Beautiful.
We also walked the whole grounds, about seven acres. There is a wall at the edge of the property and a fence around an area of about three acres directly around the house. We are going to reinforce the wall and fences with the construction supplies we brought. There was also talk of another fence to near the house, just an acre so the children can have a yard.
We can put a garden between the fences and then use the rest to plant real crops. We need more than just tomatoes or cucumbers. We need grains and corn. We might have to take over all the yards in the area eventually to grow a good variety or foods. We'll start pretty small, but will have to work our way up over time and we need to think about the future. This means we need to find seeds to start and maybe build a greenhouse to do that in.
The children are excited about moving over there since they will be able to start building their play area. They have been bugging Sean, Eric and the girls about any play structures they can remember seeing when on patrol. They have a map of the area and are marking houses they want us to check out. They have some elaberate drawings, made with crayon, to show some of their ideas. It all depends on what we can get for them in the way of play structures.
For other decisions, we decided to get a couple of people from each group to make the calls. Carol and Sean are going to represent their group while Linda, Aaron, Williams I are  our representatives. We are going to work out the patrol schedules and where the sentries will be placed around the property. Sean said they hadn't had sentries, but with only five people, there weren't enough of them to do it. Now, we can have at least two, one in front and one in back. But that will be decided soon.
There are so many little details that have to be worked out just to make this work. I didn't realize how much time and effort we were going to have to put in to make us all happy. We are going to need everyone to participate to make this work. Amanda and her crew are taking over cooking duties and there will be a scheduled rotation for clean up. Some people will be doing patrol or sentry duties, while others will be concentrating on the garden and crops. If someone wants to do a bit of both, I'm sure that can be worked out. But everyone will have to be taught to use the weapons in the house, even the kids.
Which reminds me that we need to choose a room to be our classroom and figure out how to start a school. Carol said there is a library and according on how big it is, that might be the best place for the school. We have to figure out who can teach what subjects and set up a schedule for the children. Maybe some of the mothers can be teachers, we'll have to see.
We need a medical clinic, too. Dr Ben has been using the den for his patient in the house we have been sleeping in. But that isn't going to be good enough. He wants a space where he can set up a lab, which means looking for equipment for him. He is going to have to go with us, or make us a very specific list of what to look for. I don't have any idea what he might need. Plus, he is going to need a space to see patients. We might have to give him a couple of rooms.
Wow, we are going to run out of space quickly. Maybe we can find some trailers or motor homes for some of these needs. I bet we can find some really nice ones around here. If we can find a big enough one, the school could even be set up in one.
Well, that covers food, education, medical care, rooms, entertainment, and protection. And that is just what I've thought of on the first day. Looks like we are going to be busy for the next few weeks.

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