Christmas is coming

Christmas is coming and sadly for my business that means a distinct lack of orders. Plenty of animals, plenty to do but not a lot of orders going out or money coming in. It’s always been this way, schools and universities close down, people are too busy for new pets and most people don’t have the money to spend on themselves just before Christmas but the New Year is sure to be busy so I am using this time to organise my new venture. I will be launching after the festive season but for now I have lots to do and it is all very exciting. I did my first trial “Ginny’s Jungle” party on Saturday (hence no blog last Friday). It went very well, some of you may have seen the photos on my Facebook page. The kids and adults seemed to really enjoy it but I am always ultra critical of myself and think a lot could be improved on, of course that is the idea of having practice parties. I think I’m going in the right direction and I’m getting lots of help. I have arranged a second practice party this morning and am already planning the improvements needed.

I have also been using my time to rearrange the bug room quite a bit, I have a lot of scorpions now and they are dotted around so I am trying to bring them all together, I have given up on the cabinet by the door idea that I mentioned a couple of weeks ago. Scorpions like to be very warm and I don’t think I could maintain a high enough temperate in that part of the bug room. I have had a few visitors recently and have sold several of my larger spiders so there are some gaps on the spider shelves which is a real rarity. I won’t be restocking until January now but if you would like to come and look at any of my animals you are welcome to visit, just let me know in advance as I am always in and out. Animals that are housed individually like the spiders and scorpions are much easier to show people than the communally kept creatures as they are housed in boxes on top of each other. Everything is tightly packed in, I think an estate agent would call it bijoux. When people come over, the tarantulas really sell themselves, I have some beauties but it is impossible to show them in their true light on the website.

All of my baby scorpions have left their mum’s and are now living and feeding independently. They are showing on the website and many are on special offer and bulk buy deals. Obviously the more animals I can home now, the less I will have to care for over the festive break! I cleaned out and fed all my stick insects yesterday, I have some lovely large specimens, especially the Jungle Nymphs and Wood Nymphs. I didn’t realise how dry they had got. I house them in large Exo Terra vivariums with lights on top and of course the radiators are on most of the time now so this does dry them out. I have covered most of the lids with cling film to keep in the moisture and also added water bowls (with tissue in them, stick insects are well known for drowning themselves).

I also house my Florida Katydids in an Exo Terra cage, I cannot believe how much they eat and how fast they grow, most are almost adult now. They are the most beautiful bright green colour, really gorgeous.

One of the mums at the party on Saturday said that I had a great selection of animals. I pointed out that I supply many of the people up and down the country who do bug parties so I should have a good selection! I think I will need to get a Bearded Dragon and probably a couple of tree frogs for my “Jungle”. I have always wanted a monitor lizard but my husband has banned me and I must admit that it really wouldn’t be suitable for children’s parties. Whatever I get they will need to be housed in my already over-crowded bug room. The dining room is full of snakes, there is nowhere to put any more large vivariums. Perhaps I could house my new party animals by the door if I can get the right sort of enclosed cage and keep it hot with additional heating? More expense or as I like to call it ‘investment in the future’. I think my two businesses will run along side by side quite nicely but of course I can’t be sure until I start in the New Year. I just know that I can’t keep going the way I have been! I never stop, the main problem is that I simply have too many animals to look after and not enough sales for them these days. The more I have, the more I have to do. 

Adaptation is the key to survival as Darwin stated. I am getting on great with my new Apple computer, it is very different but much better than my old system and the applications make more sense to me as I am used to the Apple iPad and iPhone. I still have tons to learn but every day I am improving. I love the way that everything links up with my iCloud; photos, documents, notes, reminders.

I have been watching bits and pieces of “I’m a Celebrity get me out of here”. I always enjoy it, I had to laugh the other night when one of the guys exclaimed that he was not used to counting cockroaches. I found myself shouting I am! And Wednesday night’s little shop of horrors (or whatever they called it) just looked like great fun to me. It was simply moving all the animals that I like into new containers. The creatures look brilliant but no way would I be eating them - live, cooked, liquidised or any other way! The program is full of inspirational ideas for my jungle parties. Some years ago now my very own creatures featured in the planning of the show and shots were used in the opening sequences.

That’s it for another week, Black Friday today, mum in-law and I are off Christmas shopping and looking for bargains!