Alone but coping!

Alone but coping! My hubby has gone off on his annual motorbike trip with several friends from work, he will be gone for ten days so I am praying that nothing goes wrong with my computer, website, iPhone, printer - or anything else that requires any knowledge of technology. I really wanted to put photos of my daughter's Mexican Red Knee tarantula 'celebrating' her 18th birthday (not sure she enjoyed all the attention) but I have no idea how to do it. I take loads of photos on my iPhone but putting them on the website appears to be incredibly complicated. My hubby seems to go through so many processes, even he doesn't know why the photos from my phone show up as locked on my computer. Anyway he is off whizzing around the mountains of Spain, the weather here is great but I understand it is raining in Spain today (what a shame!). I hate him going on these trips but there again he hates my bugs. I think my bugs are a lot less dangerous.

I've had another busy week, try as I might to cut down on livestock before my holiday next month, things still keep coming in. A very nice guy who has bought many spiders off me,is moving shortly and asked me to buy his collection as he didn't feel he could take them all with him. I just could not resist and so yesterday a large number of tarantulas arrived. I spent all afternoon sorting them out, there are some lovely specimens. The Gooty Ornamental ran out of its tub and I was stunned by how beautiful it is. I have only seen spiderlings or photos of this tarantula. Now I know why they are so sought after. All the spiders have now been fed, watered and housed but I haven't yet had time to put them on my website. Hopefully I will get them on soon but with hubby away I am busier than ever. I will be out most of today and tomorrow but I will do my best to catch up with work on Sunday. I have the house alarm guy coming tomorrow. He is a family friend, I need him to move the sensor in my bug room because it has been covered up by cages and boxes. He says it's a simple job but I think I will need to do some clearing up so that he can get to it.

The bug room has been a great success, it is so much easier having everything in one place but I just wish it was about half the size bigger, that would be perfect. I am once again advertising that my lovely Crested geckoes need a new home. They are so cute but just take up too much room and I can't find anywhere else to put them (I swear my house is shrinking). My hubby is in the process of making me a new super duper snake house. I love my snakes and their old housing may be practical but it looks awful in the dining room. My hubby loves woodworking and now that he has the old bug house to work in he intends to make something practical but also a real piece of furniture that looks good too. It will probably cost a fortune and end up being far more expensive than a new, giant sized vivarium (which I was going to get before he decided to make it).

Sales are going well, I am putting lots of short term special offers on the website, to ensure people keep looking and stay interested. I'm amazed at times how quickly a new item will go, I think there are a number of people who check my website very regularly. Some items will start to run out now and I won't be replacing them until I return from Holiday (did I mention I'm off to Mexico?!). I have been looking at Trip Advisor again this week, it definitely says there are lots of animals at this eco hotel, I just wonder if there will be any of the animals that I like best. Mind you I do like all animals, my little great-niece Izzy is fed up with me showing her Coatimundi in the hotel grounds, on YouTube. Talking of my nephew's kids I have volunteered to have them on Wednesdays in the summer holidays and will no doubt have them on other days too, now that their mum is back at full time work. This will mean I cannot post out orders on Wednesdays and won't be able to work as much as I have been doing lately. I really need a bit of time out during the kids holidays. Perhaps I will be selective about which emails I reply to, that would certainly save a lot of time. I cannot believe how much time I spend on emails, so many queries could be answered by looking on my website. I just cannot find a polite way of saying this to people. I have tried many ways of conveying the message "I'm really busy, just ring me, it is so much easier and quicker" but it doesn't work. I'm not saying don't email questions, I welcome genuine enquiries and people asking for details about an animal before purchasing. I just seem to find it impossible to ignore emails. I had one yesterday that was all in French and asking if I had a particular spider. I used Google translate to reply but it took time and obviously I didn't have the spider as it isn't on my website. Don't mention the French evening class, it has now finished and I really wasn't very good. However I have learnt that the teacher lives in my village and does one to one lessons at a reasonable rate so when things are a bit less hectic in my life, I intend to treat myself. It isn't just the animals that keep me busy, my elderly next door neighbour is now out of hospital after three months and is obviously frail and needing a little help at the moment. My poor mother in-law has so many hospital appointments coming up that it is hard to keep track of them, then there's the kids both big and little! (our son's cat arrives next week for a two week stay, while they are away in Thailand). I spent literally hours filling in the online form to renew my mother in-laws disabled parking badge this week only for there to be a glitch in the system and the whole thing disappeared, just as I had almost finished. To say I was upset would be an understatement. I now need to start all over again, the paperwork arrived today, no way was I going to risk doing it online again.

Lastly my millipede breeding seems to be going really well. I said some months ago that I wanted to concentrate on them and I seem to have cracked it at last. Now all I need to do is learn how to induce my various species of scorpions to give birth. I have several obviously gravid females and they just seem to have been pregnant forever. I swear that my Imperial scorpion will burst soon! If you have any ideas I would be really pleased to hear from you.

Must get on, lots of little creatures to sort before I go out. I went to the local greengrocers yesterday and before I said a word I was presented with a huge box of apples and told they were "for the bugs".