Baby Has Arrived

Tired again but this time she had the baby! (see last week's blog) a beautiful baby girl born yesterday afternoon. I was woken at 5.30am and rushed round to take care of the other two while they shot off to hospital, hence I didn't get a lot done yesterday. I managed to send some emails with a two year old on my lap but she hates the bugs and refuses to go in my bug house. It's just not fair, what's wrong with all my family, perhaps this new baby with love creepy crawlies.

I have loads of new bugs coming in this weekend so I have been cleaning boxes, tanks and cages all week. I hope to get some new spiders, whip scorpions, mantids and more. Everything new should be on my list by Monday or Tuesday, no Sunday off again. My great idea of taking Sunday's off and not looking at the computer in the evening isn't going well, much to the annoyance of my hubby. It's just so difficult to switch off when you work from home. Talking of switching off we bought a gadget that tells you how much electricity you are using. I think it is called an 'Owl', it's a little box that shows you how much money per hour you are using. It's great, we have become fascinated with it but it is rather depressing when the bug house heaters come on, they are on a thermostat so they switch on and off frequently. I can't do much about the power used in the bug house but we do find ourselves tuning off lights, only half filling the kettle, not leaving the telly on stand-by or leaving the iron on while I do other things.

I'm afraid I've gone off the reptile idea already. I just don't think I can sell vertebrate animals. I haven't sold any of the snakes, I can't bear to part with them, as I said to one of my customers this week, I feel like I'm selling children. I think it's best to stick to what I know! I will never get rich breeding bugs but life's not all about making money. Business has been very slow over the last couple of weeks, perhaps it's the credit crunch but hopefully things will pick up next week when I have a lot of new stock in. My best money saving tip - buy plastic storage boxes from Wilkinsons to house your bugs. I have found this store to have the cheapest and best quality. They have boxes of every size, just right for housing spiders, scorpions, millipedes, snails and stick insects. I cut the middle out of the lid for stick insects and clip a piece of nylon netting under the remainder of the lid, this allows plenty of ventilation and the insects can easily be sprayed without having to unclip the lid. I make air holes in the lids for other bugs, this is easily done by using a soldering iron (also bought cheaply in Wilkinsons - no they are not sponsoring me for Children in Need!) The boxes that I use most regularly are fairly large and cost only £2.99.

I'm still expecting to move my pet reptiles into my office when it is sorted out but goodness knows when that will be. Replacing the existing roof is proving to be a nightmare, my poor husband has spent two solid weekends on it but he just can't manage the job on his own so it looks like we will need to get someone in to help. He has no more holiday leave at the moment, the weather is unpredictable now and it's coming up for Christmas. Unfortunately it looks like we may need to put everything back into my office and leave it until the Spring. I will have to live with buckets dotted about catching the leaks for quite a while yet but hey, what's a few months when it has been leaking ever since we moved here five years ago!