Where to start?
Where to start? It's been quite a few weeks since my last blog and lots
has happened in that time. I had a lovely week in Cyprus at the beginning of
the month with my husband and saw lots of interesting bugs and reptiles. I put
some notes and photos on my Facebook page and got plenty of likes. Last week I
had a disaster in my bug room and got lots of interest and much needed sympathy
when I posted it on Facebook. There was a huge storm, massive downpour and all
of a sudden rain poured in through the ceiling, flooding everything in its way,
electrics and all. I lost lots of equipment but thankfully I managed to save
all the bugs. It took days to clear everything up and I had a Ginny's Jungle
party booked in my bug room, for the following weekend. The party went well and
everyone was happy with the event. I really want to do more parties and school
visits and perhaps “Bug Keepers Experiences”. I need to cut back on the number
of animals that I keep, the amount of time that I spend on their care is crazy
and it's really become too much for both me and my family. If I made the
money to match the time then I could afford an assistant but sadly I don’t, so
everything is down to just me!
I am actually really busy at the moment, it's been an extremely hectic
week with a large number of orders placed. I'm surprised by this as we are now
in the school holidays and getting towards the end of the month (usually both
quiet times). It's great to have the orders because it is soul destroying
when I am working so hard with few orders to send out. I aim to post on
two days of the week but in reality, it usually ends up being three. I have
noticed an increase very recently in the number of people placing an order and
then asking me to post on a specific day. I do my best but it isn't always
possible as I work around my family and commitments. I'm starting this blog now
at hospital as I am stuck here for the day while a family member is undergoing
an operation. I can't go home because our 'local' hospital is actually an hour
away and even longer at busy times. We got here with no problems at 7.30 this
morning (I'm shattered now and I hate hospitals). I would like to be able to
provide customers with specific posting days each week but I just can't as I
don't know how many orders I will have and I cannot get everything out to pack
up one parcel. When I am asked in advance there is no problem but when I am
'instructed' after an order has been received it becomes very difficult. I try
to send each Tuesday and Thursday as mentioned in my terms & conditions but
life often gets in the way.
I decided recently that me and coir are finished! I am going back to
peat, it is now hard to find and expensive but it is far superior to coir. I am
changing all my millipede boxes to peat as I am absolutely fed up with fungus
growing in the coir and spreading throughout the entire box. It engulfs the
leaf litter and rotten wood that I have lovingly collected, meaning that I am
continually cleaning out the boxes and risk throwing out the eggs. The fungus
doesn't seem to have an effect on the adult millipedes but it can cause
problems for baby millipedes and I also don't think it is good for me to
breathe in. I consulted my friend Amazon after checking all the local garden
centres and finding that none of them now sell peat. I purchased a large bag of
peat for £16.99, more than double what it was a few short years ago. I haven't
come across any coir that doesn't produce fungus once it is damped down and
warmed up. Some of the mushrooms are very pretty but I don't need a mushroom
garden in my bug room.
Anyway, must get a move on, as usual I have a long list of jobs that
need doing in the bug room and I have had precious little time to do them this
week. I must just mention what a twit I felt this morning when I came back from
walking Teddi in the woods. I came across two ladies who started to make a fuss
of Teddi and as we chatted one of the ladies asked what I had got on my face. I
instantly thought “oh no, stick insect, cockroach, cricket?”. She peeled it off
for me and it was a yellow dot sticker. "Ah its only last week's feeding
colour" I said, then I had to explain what I do and that I use the
coloured dots to mark which animals have been fed or need to be fed this week.
I didn't go into too much detail, as I was holding a bunch of newly collected
bramble I just explained about the stick insects. I didn't think I needed to
mention tarantulas and scorpions or they might have thought I was really mad.
This week’s photo – Mushroom growing in a coir and sand mix