A tough week

A tough week but thankfully hubby will be home this evening. Him being away for ten days has made my life very difficult, I am just so busy with work and family. I am very rarely ill but I have developed an ear infection this week. It has slowed me down a little but certainly hasn't stopped me! I've had some lovely emails from happy customers, over the last few days which have made me feel considerably better.

The new bug room is going from strength to strength as I get more used to it. I was in my log cabin at the bottom of the garden for about nine years so it has been quite a change but I now love it. I don't know how I coped for so long, having the office and bug room next to each other has really simplified things. My cages and tanks are far better organised, I think it will be much easier for our daughter to look after the bugs when hubby and I are on holiday next month. Everything that needs misting, morning and evening is in one place and that's really the main job to be done while I'm away.

I seriously need to cut down on animals now that it is only just over three weeks until our summer holiday. I have been running lots of short term special offers and I'm thinking of other ways to boost sales in the next two weeks. I have a long list of things that need sorting out with hubby at the weekend and this is certainly on it. I have loads of ideas but rarely have time to implement them. I am also looking at running an incentive to try and persuade customers to order on a Tuesday and Wednesday. Nearly all my orders arrive from Thursday - Monday which leaves me sorting them out over the weekend and frantically busy on Monday and Tuesday. I would love to space out the orders a bit, I posted lots on Monday and Tuesday of this week, just three parcels on Wednesday and had nothing at all to post yesterday! Very strange but having said that I would rather all my orders arrived on one day than not at all (which was the case for some weeks in the Winter).

Cutting down is not easy for me, I get offered so many wonderful bugs and I find it hard to say 'no' but I must be sensible. I yet again got in some new spiders this week but that is it, they were just too good to miss. I really don't need anything else as my own collection is reproducing rapidly. I sold a large number of home grown spiderlings at the beginning of the week. They were going very cheaply because there were just too many for me to look after. I really do spend hours of each day caring for my menagerie. My garden is a bit of a jungle at the moment but I have managed to cultivate many important food plants over the years. It is great to be able to forage in the garden rather than look an idiot cutting things down in parks and very often car parks.

I can't spend too long on the blog this morning as I need to walk Teddi, I then have a dental check-up at 10am and my son and daughter in-law are bringing over their cat at 11am for Mum to look after for the two weeks that they are in Thailand. I did try to suggest a cattery but was told "that would be cruel" (sadly their other cat was killed by a car recently). My whole life seems to be looking after things, animals, kids, plants and people. I must finish my mother in-law's disabled badge renewal application today, she needs it for all her hospital procedures coming up!

I received a lovely little book in the post this week, I did an interview with a young girl a couple of years ago now. She was writing a book about working in entomology and came over to interview me. I had forgotten all about it but the book has now been published by the AES Bug Club (Amateur Entomologist' Society). It is called Working in Entomology by Rachel McLeod and even contains a piece written by Sir David Attenborough. Well done to Rachel, I think she is only 14 now. I'm sure Rachel has a bright future ahead of her (must find time to thank her for the book today).

Moving on quickly, it is only 7am but I have a busy day ahead. When I checked my emails this morning there was one from a guy offering me a set price for my last three Red Legged millipedes. It made me smile as that is another of my ideas! I have been thinking of 'make me an offer week', obviously there are some things that I can reduce more than others as it depends how much I have paid for them (and how long I have spent looking after them) but it may be a goer, it's on my list to discuss with hubby this weekend. Only problem is that I need to reduce it on the website, therefore anyone can buy it. I have put reductions on for one person before and another has jumped in and bought it. I don't think there is much I can do about it. The person asking for the discount needs to make the purchase quickly. Last week I had just one Giant Train millipede come in and it sold an hour or so after it appeared on the website!

Hope everyone has a nice weekend and I hope the sun comes out. I can't believe that hubby went to Spain in June and it rained most days (at least he is coming back in one piece, all that whizzing around on motorbikes scares the life out of me).