"If you want to lend a hand, ma'am, I won't turn down the help." He takes a sip of tea before continuing. "A lot of this really should be a two-person job anyway." There were a bunch of times so far that he'd really have loved a third hand while trying to hammer in some of the planks.

"But it isn't going to be finished tonight. This place is too big." He gestured to the windows. "I'm not even sure I can cover the whole compound with what we've got. But if I can harden up this side of it, it'll be something." This side of the compound was closest to the forest, and therefore was potentially the more vulnerable to approach.

"If this place gets attacked, we could seal this bit up. Easier to defend, and still has some fallback options if barricades fail."