Sunshine at last
Sunshine at last, we seem to have had permanent rain lately, both inside and out! I am being driven to distraction by the constant leaks in my office and bug room roof. The design of the roof is dreadful and although my nephew is a roofer, even he is finding it difficult to come up with an 'affordable' solution. He came over yesterday with a work colleague, they are trying to find a way to build a new drainage gully without stripping off the entire roof. The roof has already been replaced but now the metal gully has started to rust away. I have had buckets everywhere this week but the rain always seems to find a new spot to pour in Agggh! I should receive a quote for the new outer door for my bug room today. It is desperately needed but again it is more money and I am also concerned how long it will take to fit and just how I am going to keep the bug room warm when the work is carried out. I will have to move the cages and shelving that are close to the door and then I'm hoping to temporarily rig up some bubble wrap across the gap.
The bugs are all oblivious to my worries, they seem quite happy in their cosy quarters. People keep offering me new bugs but I am resisting the urge to get anything new in. I have too much to care for, it just takes hours on a daily basis. My hubby and I went to Somerset on Wednesday to see my 92 year old aunty. It was a long day, I obviously saw to the bugs before we left but when we got home I discovered Headlight cockroaches everywhere. The box had got a little damp so I had left the lid off to dry things out. This is fine during the day but as soon as the sun went down, they came out to play. They were everywhere, all over the floor, up the walls, under the shelves. I spent ages catching them up but I expect to be finding them for weeks to come. I won't do that again!
Still no news of my website upgrade but I am gradually adding more information to the current site. I was going to add a 'stick insect' gallery but I realised that it would be a lot of work and I just don't sell enough stick insects to justify it. I am trying to encourage people to buy 'mixed' stick insects but most people clearly prefer to buy a specific species and know what they are getting. Unfortunately I don't have the space for lots of stick insect cages anymore so most of mine are now housed in a large cage together. They are quite happy together but it is extremely difficult to tell exactly which are which, especially when they first hatch. Beetle sales were going so well and now they seem to have come to a grinding halt. What's happened? I have lots of beetles, numerous species and in various stages. Collecting leaf litter and rotten wood is a weekly chore for me but they are very simple to keep if you only have a few. You can even buy bags of 'beetle substrate' on the internet now. I love beetles, it is great to care for the grubs, see them pupate and then finally hatch into adults. The newly emerged adults are awesome, I love the iridescent colours of the Jewel beetles. I had put information on the website that the larvae of the larger beetle species can be cannibalistic but I'm pleased to say that since putting all my larvae together I haven't lost any. The larvae just became too big to house individually so I had little choice but to put them in the same cage. I don't mix the different species, although I know some of my customers keep different ones together. I couldn't possibly tell the larvae apart so I am very careful not to get them muddled up.
I think my mobile phone problems are over, I truly hope so! I got a new Sim card from the Vodafone shop this week and as far as I can tell I am receiving calls and texts normally now. If you know differently please tell me! The problem has been ongoing for almost three weeks. At times my phone would ring but mostly it would go straight to answer machine and then some hours later I would discover that I had voice mail messages. I also discovered that I wasn't receiving some texts, some of my texts were not being delivered and others were arriving hours/days late. I was not amused to receive a text at 5.15am on Sunday morning. The phone was next to my bed as usual (my daughter was staying at a friend's house and I am on permanent call to several elderly friends and relatives). It was a message about stick insects that had actually been sent on Friday morning! I hope everything is normal now but only time will tell.
I think this week's blog should have been titled "problems, problems". Anyhow I think they are all getting sorted now. My hubby went to take Teddi (our Eurasier dog) to the park yesterday morning and noticed that my car had a flat tyre. There was a huge nail in it, it couldn't be repaired, hence a new tyre needed to be fitted.
Next week is half term and I will be helping out with my nephew's three kids so I won't be available all the time. Sadly I also have a friend's funeral to attend on Monday.
Next Thursday is Halloween, lots of spiders, bats and beasties, plus sweeties galore - Happy Halloween everyone x