Little time for blogging

Sorry, little time for blogging this morning. It has been a busy week with lots of new animals in. We spent yesterday rearranging the shelving in both my office and bug room (hubby had a couple of days off his work, so as usual I had him helping with mine!). I am really pleased with the results. I now have the deeper shelves in my office for storage and the more shallow shelving units in my bug room. This gives me so much more space to move around and I don't feel I have lost a lot of shelving as most of the extra depth was wasted. If I were to put things at the back of the shelving I would run the risk of overlooking it, so I tended to only use the front of the shelving anyway. I have some lovely new scorpions and hopefully some will prove to be gravid. I had a bit of a problem with the new Train millipedes. I was sold them as large and small Train millipedes and put them on my website accordingly. I then realised that they are two different species, even though they look almost identical except for the size difference. I realised that I could see mature mating organs on some of the smaller millipedes so they certainly didn't look like 'baby' Train millipedes. I have now sorted it out on my website, unfortunately I could only get a few of the 'Giant Train' millipedes. I have been in contact with another supplier and he assures me he will have 'lots' in 'soon'.

I am rabbiting on again but I really need to get ready to go out. I am meeting a new dog trainer in the local park. I honestly do need to get our hyperactive dog under better control. That's the theory, I have had several other dog trainers and everyone seems to think she is lovely, just over excitable. Well I am over excitable too and it stresses me out when she won't stay away from other dogs, so I am determined to keep trying.

I have some new spiderlings coming in next week, just as I have almost got my stock down to a reasonable level! I have re-housed a lot of the larger spiderlings to make room for them all in the 'nursery' area. I certainly did make some mistakes when I purchased so many spiderlings in one go back in January. I don't know if they were the wrong species or I just paid the wrong price but I haven't sold any Casablanca Chestnut(Aphonopelma abberans), Brazilian Brown Birdeater(Vitalius paranaensis) or Furry Beauty(Iridopelma hirsutum). I thought these species were sought after and unusual. I absolutely love the Furry Beauty, they are one of my favourite tarantulas. We learn by our mistakes. I will be concentrating on buying in larger/grown on spiders at the next show I attend.

THE END (will try harder next week!)

Comments

A surreal week indeed!

A surreal week indeed! I sent off my last orders on Monday and the remainder of my bugs will be leaving me on Friday. So many people are congratulating me on my retirement but I prefer the good luck messages. I didn’t think I would ever retire but it all became too much, not just for me but my family too. Our home was taken over by my work. The bug room was my domain but the rest of the house had gradually filled up with ‘stuff’, plastic boxes, cardboard boxes, tanks etc. and I never ever had any time. Whatever task I was doing, I was always thinking of the next job on the list. People keep asking what I am going to do with my time now. In the short term I will be clearing everything out, especially the loft which is full to the brim. I’m a bit of a hoarder so that really doesn’t help 😄 Lack of time was indeed the main factor for finishing my business but there was also the constant “I only want a female tarantula” 😤, leaving Europe was a big blow, Covid, the animal welfare licensin...

My biggest announcement ever!

My biggest announcement ever! It is with a heavy heart that I am informing everyone of my impending retirement as “The Bug Lady”. I have been running my business for approximately 45 years so it has been pretty good J Things change over the years, I was one of the only bug dealers in the early days and possibly the only woman but these days, every man and his dog is selling tarantulas and “proper bugs” seem to have fallen out of favour. I have been cutting down on stock for some time and had hoped to keep going without the tarantulas but it hasn’t worked out. I expect to fully retire by the end of this year but a lot depends on my wonderful customers (you!) as I need to sell off a large number of little creatures. I still have 24 species of tarantula (multiple numbers of most), millipedes, cockroaches, isopods, scorpions, slugs etc. Do take a look on my website, once they are gone, they are gone! If you want to help me, please spread the word to all your bug mad friends. I have lots of...

Getting there!

Getting there! My plans for retirement are going pretty well, I cannot believe all the wonderful messages that I have received over the last few weeks, many of them have had me in tears. It is very emotional to give up my little friends after a lifetime of keeping them and my human friends too but the time is right so I will keep plodding on until everything has gone. I won’t be changing my phone number and I hope to keep my email address, therefore, those who want to, can stay in touch. I had planned for a big sale on September 1st but orders are still going strong so an all-out clearance sale doesn’t sound such a great idea. I have decided instead to reduce items individually but I do keep changing my mind J It is really difficult to retire over a period of time, I couldn’t make the decision and then stop, like most people are able to. I can’t set a date in the future because I simply don’t know when sales will dry up. The idea of an open day sadly became unworkable, I just don’t hav...

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