Love my new room at last!

Love my new room at last! Things are certainly getting easier. I cannot believe that I ever managed to work with my bugs at the end of the garden and my office indoors. I must walk miles less each week and that means more time. The trouble is I just seem to fill it up with more things to do. I am catching up but it is a slow process. The house is still full of stuff from my office but I intend to spend the weekend getting it sorted. My hubby has now moved most of his things out to the old bug house so it is down to me now to get things organised.

We did have a laugh this week. My hubby needs his workshop to be dry and I need mine to be humid. I was looking at getting a humidifier for the bug room but I seem to have got there now, the humidity is fairly constant at 70% which feels about right. My husband on the other hand was forced to buy a de-humidifier as the workshop was still at 90% humidity (all his tools would go rusty). He is currently emptying over a litre of water from the de-humidifier every day. We have had lots of sun this week but I'm pleased to say that the bug room hasn't over heated. I have pulled the blinds to shield the glass tanks and all seems well. Each night I put a board across the bottom of the doorway between my office and bug room but I must admit that I have found a few escapees in my office. Only this morning my hubby noticed a Porcelain cockroach sitting on one of my shelves, oops, I put it back quickly. The good thing is that any escapees have to also get out of my office before they reach the house. None have made it so far, except fruit flies but they are far less troublesome since I bought an electric fly trap a couple of weeks ago.

I have lots of spiderlings now and have put some on the site at a very low price for people who are able to call and collect them from me. I have been potting them up and this afternoon I will be taking 50 to a reptile dealer friend. I dare say I will be swapping them for more bugs! I have lots of stock at the moment but with the BTS exhibition coming up I expect my stock will increase considerably by the end of the month. I could really do with a break rather than doubling my animals. May is a major birthday month in our family, we have parties and get togethers most weekends. Our daughter (yes, my baby) will be 21 this month so there is lots of planning to do.

We have however booked a summer holiday only yesterday. We are off to Mexico in July for a week, two weeks would have been wonderful but I couldn't leave the bugs that long. We are going to an all inclusive eco hotel. Looking at Trip Advisor there are animals everywhere, the iguanas look amazing and the Coatis are feeding from people's hands. Sounds like bliss, I just can't wait. It is a major logistical nightmare preparing to go anywhere even for a weekend with all my animals. Our daughter will be in charge of the bugs (with our son checking all is well at the weekend), mother in-law will be house sitting (her mobility isn't good but she will keep the dog company, take in parcels, watch the temperature in the bug room etc.), our neighbours will be walking the dog. I know that few people believe me but nobody in my family has the slightest interest in my bugs so I will be feeding, cleaning and setting them up the best I can for a week away!

I seem to be getting quite a few phone calls at the moment. It is nice when people phone rather than send endless emails. Most people call my mobile which is fine as I generally have it attached to my belt. I love my iPhone "Magical Merlin" as I call him. My little niece exclaimed recently as I tripped in the garden "be careful you could have hurt Magical Merlin" (don't worry about me then).The only problem that I am finding is that my work landline has been taken over by sales calls, I honestly estimate that at least half of the calls are sales calls. I often just pick up the phone without noticing, but when I see that the display says 'withheld' I generally ignore it. I don't like to be rude to these people on the phone, if they are foreign they are probably earning a pittance for long hours and if they are in the UK then they are probably 'between jobs'. I can't imagine many people aspire to do telesales, it must be a thankless task (if you love your job in telesales then sorry and good luck to you).

Well I had better get a move on, lots to do as usual. I need to feed all my scorpions today. I have a really nice collection now and I am finding that they are becoming more popular as pets. Scorpions are usually pretty active, very easy to keep and they look amazing under UV light. At last I am making headway in my efforts to cut back on stick insects. I cleaned out my large net cage yesterday, the only problem is that I cannot be sure what they are anymore. I have some interesting stick insects hatching but I can't for the life of me recognise them all as nymphs.

Not sure if I mentioned it? I have finally got rid of the 30 day account option on my website. It was just a pain in the neck, the only people who wanted to apply for an account were pet shops when that wasn't the idea at all. The account was for educational establishments that had no other way of ordering. I didn't have a single application from anyone in six months so my web guy has now removed it.