Time to slow down

Time to slow down, the bug room is packed to 'almost' full capacity as Winter approaches. I must stop buying and do more selling. Much as I love all my bugs and enjoy pottering around in the bug room, it is ridiculous the amount of time I spend looking after everything. The baby snakes are doing well, I now have 5 feeding, only 15 to go! I think I was probably worrying unnecessarily as they all look healthy enough, it just seems that some begin to feed earlier than others. I say they are all healthy, one has a bent/deformed tail, I have named him Wonky. He was the last to hatch, hopefully he will be ok, time will tell.

I was very excited a couple of days ago when I realised that one of my Tail-less Whip scorpions has a clutch of tiny babies on her back. I have been trying to breed these for ages, years in fact. I think I may have another two that are pregnant. Thankfully they are not like the true scorpions which seem to hang onto their young indefinitely, or at least until they deem the conditions to be right.

I have received more beetles this week which meant another trip into the woods to collect leaf litter and rotten wood. It seems to be a more or less weekly event now. I just wish that damp leaves and wood weren't so damn heavy. I also got in some new millipedes, they are a beautiful red colour. I haven't put them on the website yet, I'm not sure if I should just keep them for breeding. They are a small species but very pretty.

It is so nice to have everything in one place. It seems an age ago since I was working from my log cabin at the bottom of the garden, in reality it was only a few short months ago. It was a crazy set up with my office so far away. I really hope that this winter with all the bugs indoors we will see a large reduction in our electricity bills. The cost of heating the log cabin was a big part of the reason for moving everything into the house. Mind you, we spent a fortune preparing the workshop to make it suitable to house the bugs. Only yesterday my husband and nephew (who is a roofer) have been up on the bug house/office roof trying to sort out the guttering problem. The roof is a very strange construction and being built right up to the building line with our neighbour, there is very little room for manoeuvre. Something has to be done as rain pours in through the ceiling if we have a downpour. There is no easy solution, it is sounding expensive!

My website upgrade is still ongoing. Hopefully it will be finished soon and there will be some great improvements to the site (well that's the idea). I have been trying to sort out another payment option to run alongside PayPal but it is more complicated than I realised. Why is nothing ever simple? I have been looking at Sage Pay and am fairly hopeful I can get it set up within the next few weeks.

I had fun and games trying to get some Cave crickets into a tub this week. They were just impossible to handle, they leapt straight up in the air as soon as I opened the lid to the tank. I now have Cave crickets all over the bug room, they are unbelievably fast, I will have to think of a better way of doing it. The Velvet cockroaches are another nightmare to pack. They seem to just walk up glass as it if they are walking on a level surface or should I say run up. They are really unusual cockroaches but not very popular, perhaps it's because few people have seen them. Like a lot of things they would sell far better if I had a shop and could display them, rather than just selling mail order. I am trying to encourage people to call and collect their orders but obviously most of my customers are just too far away. I have issued a special offer, 20% discount code for collections but as yet have had no takers. I have a guy coming over next week to look at the snakes, hopefully he will buy one. I am giving a 10% discount to anyone coming to look around and buy, rather than placing their order online (my husband thinks this sounds confusing, it makes sense to me but if it doesn't make sense to you please see the pink box on my website for details). It is obviously a good deal, as well as the discount, there will also be no postage to pay.

Lots of jobs to do today. My lovely friend Jools has managed to find me a supply of sweet jars so I'm off to collect them this morning. Jools and I became friends over the school holidays, she was a wildlife ranger with the council until the wildlife centre was scrapped (lack of funds!). She now works freelance doing school visits and wildlife walks. My nephew's kids and I went on several of her walks in the summer and had great fun, she also does crafts with the kids. I have a stained glass butterfly (cardboard and tissue paper) on my office window, made by Izzy, age 4. Jools is coming over next week to see my bugs. I wonder if I could convince her to take a snake home?

Must get a move on, not that anyone else in the house is awake yet! I can't imagine working 'normal' hours. I often think I should give up on the bugs and get a 'proper' job (more money, more time, less responsibility) but I can't really see it happening. After all these years of working alone I am not a team player and nobody else works at my speed. I have very high standards, I'm not sure anyone would want to work with me or me with them!