Breeding successes

Making a start on the blog but not sure how long I have with my little grandson in his bouncy chair. Unfortunately, Milo’s dad had an accident at work this week and is back at the hospital this morning, having the wound assessed, yuk!

It’s a crazy busy month of the year, the bugs are growing, the garden is growing. My hubby has just returned from his annual motorbike trip to Spain. I am desperately trying to cut down on the bugs a bit before the summer (assuming we will have one, I’ve still got be my heated blanket on most nights). I’ve been really successful with breeding so many animals but especially arachnids this year. I recently set up a new category called “Bulk Buy Babies” to sell some of my surplus and I’m certainly open to offers on my tarantula collection.

I have three amazing spiders with egg sacs currently, they are Caribena versicolor, Neoholothele incei (gold) and Phormictopus cautus. I also have a number of gravid scorpions and some with babies on their backs, plus my amazingly wonderful Vinegaroons with hatching eggs (just this week). It is all very exciting but I am more and more aware that there is only one of me and things need to calm down a bit (I need to calm down a bit is the story of my life!). It struck me while pushing baby Milo up and down in his pram, how strange it is to be looking after a baby while then checking the monitor on my phone, to see how my elderly mother in-law with dementia is doing this morning (I am her main carer).

The price of postage L Special Delivery works really well, I couldn’t carry out my business without it but my goodness it costs a lot these days. I haven’t increased my postal charges for years because I feel that over £10 is just too much, therefore I am often subsidising deliveries, especially in the colder months when I include a heat pack (generally October to May, not an insignificant time). People sometimes moan about the postal charge but I simply couldn’t afford to give free postage, much as I would love to. The same goes for the minimum spend set on the website, my husband doesn’t agree with it but he’s not the one packing the orders! I don’t have the time to pack smaller orders. When you are self-employed, time really is money. So, I will just plod along in my own way.

While my husband was away I attempted again to sort out some of my boxes in the loft, clearly, I am a hoarder at heart and I don’t like to throw away memories (nothing is of any monetary value). I was going through a box from the 1980’s/90’s and realised just how much things have changed over the years. Pre-internet I was “the bug lady”, we would hire a van for the various bug shows and regularly sell out of both equipment and live creatures. If only I could do that these days. I would be a millionaire if I could sell everything that I can now produce. I found an insurance quote with a letter saying that the premium was very high and the reason being that it was a unique occupation, it made me smile. I got waylaid a lot reading lovely letters from my customers, looking at promotional photos from magazine shoots and tv work. It was fun but did I throw anything away, well some of it and then I put the box back up in the loft J

I need to speed up now, running out of time (as usual). I am setting up a couple more new categories on the website, they are a work in progress but I will finish them in a couple of days, maybe give me a week. I’m hoping to encourage more people to call and collect, I realise that most people are too far away but obviously there is no postage to pay if you pick up your order. I am always changing my ‘collection rules’ but basically just give me a call, it is by far the easiest way to communicate (well I think so).

I’m hoping for a calmer week next week, while my husband was away our electricity supplier decided to do maintenance and cut off all power to the street for an entire day. Big panic with all the thermostats, lights and electrics in the bug room but I sort of managed until hubby returned, then there was the accident with my daughter’s partner (thankfully not as bad as it could have been) and issues with Milo this week, it’s been a bit of a rollercoaster. I need to find a new yoga class! Still, we won the pub quiz last night J