So when I wrote my 2017 goals in December I also said I would reflect on the progress of my goals more frequently to enable me to try and keep on track. As we’re half way through the year it’s best we get looking at them!

1. Trailer licence

No. It turns out doing a house is really expensive, so I’ve been using every penny some months and things like the trailer licence, which isn’t vital or important, is taking a back step. It’s quite expensive, at £355 for a days and a bit lesson then the test, so it will have to wait.

2. Have the house completed to a good standard

Yes I think so! The living room is finished. My office is finished. The spare room is finished. The kitchen is up to the standard we want. We’ve had some issues in what was going to be our bedroom but we think we’re sorted this now, it’s just finding time to decorate. I’m really happy overall with where everything is up to and definitely have achieved as much as I wanted to when I set this goal back in December.

3. Be financially sound

Yes. Like I said about the trailer licence, some months I’ve used every penny but it’s all been carefully monitored and all of the essentials have been covered.

4. New and better content for this blog

I’ve been a bit pants at blogging for the past 6 months. Although there’s been some new content it’s not to the level I planned. As chance would have it I have a new puppy coming soon so I plan on blogging a lot as I take the journey with teaching and adapting to life with a new dog.

5. More videos

Nooooo. Sorry. This isn’t happening so far. I’ve been busy. I’m not sure about putting my life on camera, although I did want to put more fun videos of Guinness together I’ve just had too much going on and it’s taking me a bit of time to get used to the farm and my surroundings.

6. Chickens

Not yet! We have decided how many, which breeds, where they are going to be, it’s just a case of building the enclosure, ordering the hutch and getting them now. There is other things to do in the garden first but we’re gradually getting there.

7. Scout permit

Nope. Home life is taking a lot of my focus and time so Scouting is just bubbling along at the moment for now. I feel the Beaver Section is running fine but I’m not able to invest much extra time in it at the moment.

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That’s not bad overall I guess, some of the things that haven’t been achieved yet are out of my control as I’m waiting for other people to become available, and I hadn’t realised back in December when I set these goals quite how busy and tired running a house and doing things would be. Some evenings it’s nearly 8pm when we have finished work, had tea and washed up and then I just want to chill for an hour before catching an early night around 9pm. I also didn’t envision how much money everything would cost, and now that I’m getting a new puppy that also has a cost involved!

So I’m definitely going to look at budgeting in the trailer towing licence before the end of this year.

My new goal for the house is to get the garden fence, lawn and chicken pen up and ready by September and to get the main bedroom decorated by the end of the year. Also to have a new bathroom by the end of the year.

In terms of Scouting, instead of setting a specific goal about Scout permits I’m instead going to set a new goal to balance my life and try to allocate some time each week to commit to Scouting, so I can keep myself organised and on top of paperwork and keep the quality of Scouting up.

The same with my blog, I’m going to allocate some time to creating blog content, be this videos or written.