Swings & roundabouts

Swings & roundabouts, that's what it has been like this week. I barely had a single order until one came in that was possibly my largest ever. It took hours to pack and I am still sorting out what I have and haven't got left. You may have noticed that my beetle page is much depleted. I need to find the time to go through each box and see what I have left. Once I know what's there I can put them back on my website. It was great to sell so much stock so near to Christmas but on the same day as the order went I received an email telling me that my long awaited bugs and beasties from Africa were finally in and I will be receiving them next week. There will be some lovely creepy crawlies and spiders but it would have been great if they had come sooner or after Christmas.

I am not doing very well with my great idea of cutting back. I have all the African animals coming in but I also bought a number of millipedes and some really nice Imperial scorpions earlier this week. Although it seems some way off, in terms of posting days I really don't have that many left before Christmas is upon us. I don't like to send out orders too close as postal deliveries can be erratic, especially if the weather turns very cold. If it snows here everything comes to a halt as our village is perched on a hill!

I am still working away on the website, I have now put individual information on 20 species of tarantula but I still have many more to do. Feedback would be good, have you found any mistakes, is there something you think I should add? I certainly intend to keep going on the website improvements, I'm sure it is the way to go. I am thinking of reinstating payments by cheque and postal order but I'm not sure? The reason I stopped this method of payment was because a number of people were placing an order, holding up stock and never sending the payment. It caused a lot of extra work as I had to chase people up and more often than not cancel the orders and put all the items back on the website. I had to allow a week for the payment to reach me and this of course meant that stock could not be sold to somebody who might have wanted to buy it. What do you think? Would you prefer to pay by cheque? I thought cheques were dying out, I very rarely use them but it seems there are a number of people who do frequently use them.

My hubby will be returning this afternoon from his first full week of training in his new job. It is strange with him away but thankfully I haven't had any technology breakdowns. I often refer to him as my 'IT support'. Don't worry I do have a list of jobs for him to do at the weekend before he goes back again on Monday and he is definitely on dog walking duty too.

I have been trying to condense down some of my cages over the week but it is proving difficult. Most of the millipedes will live happily together but I can't really mix the species because if they were to breed I wouldn't know which ones they were. Millipedes are very slow growing so it would probably take months to identify the babies. The beetles too would be so much easier if I could keep them all together. I think most of the fruit beetles would be fine but of course I would have no way of telling the larvae apart. I need to cut down on the beetles but I still want to keep some. I just need to find an easier way to keep them. They need warmth but like a more open, airy environment. I may try keeping some together and see what happens. Perhaps I could sell them as mixed larvae? I decided it was stupid to have my one remaining Giant Australian Rhinoceros cockroach in such a large cage as space is at a premium in my bug room but when I cleaned 'Brutus' out he looked so amazing that I decided he deserved his large tank. I would hate anything to hurt him, he is an amazing creature and one of my favourites. I am absolutely kicking myself for not buying more of these when I had the chance at the AES exhibition last month. The trouble was that I saw them early on but then my back started hurting and I thought it best to get off home. I completely forgot about them and the Jungle Nymph stick insects too that I really wanted to buy. Thankfully my back is feeling a lot better. I actually went for a routine health check this week and the nurse told me that I was in very good shape and had one of the lowest risk percentages that she had seen (all that time spent in the gym isn't wasted after all).

Next week is looking very busy but the following week I will be away for a few days. I can't wait!