I've been defeated by the weather

I've been defeated by the weather. On Wednesday I decided that it would have to be my last posting day as the weather forecasts were all saying the same 'more snow on the way'. I cannot believe how bad the weather has been this month, my Christmas wish is for milder weather in January and February. Royal Mail cancelled their Special Delivery next day guarantee on December 1st and they have still not reinstated it. I have continued to post out the orders that I have received, on days when I thought it was 'ok', most parcels have arrived the next day and there have been few casualties but I have found it very stressful continually checking the forecasts and the Royal Mail latest information updates. I have had far fewer orders than usual and my sales are down by almost half from last December. I am now looking forward to Christmas but of course it all has a knock on effect. I am stocked to the rafters with bugs and spiders that I expected to sell before Christmas and therefore my daily care of the animals will be far more than I had planned. I had also intended to restock in the New Year but of course I need to clear some of my current stock before I can take on anything new.

The bugs and spiders are all doing well. They are totally unaffected by the current weather as the temperature in my bug house is carefully controlled and it is very warm. I spend a lot of time in the bug house so when I come out I am freezing, I think I must be cold blooded too. My thermal vests have not arrived, it is nearly three weeks since I ordered them online. When I rang the company they said my order was 'lost in the system'. Hopefully I will receive them soon, I certainly need them ASAP! I thought one of my Tail-less Whip scorpions had eaten her babies when I checked on them but then I realised they had moulted and are now living independently. I set up a new tank for them and they look great. The last of my Barking Birdeater egg sacs has hatched, well almost hatched. I couldn't wait any longer so I opened it up and the little white nymphs were running around inside the sac. I now have rather a lot of these spiderlings but I do like this species. The Trinidad Olive is happily carrying around her egg sac. The sac is really big compared to the size of the mother. I haven't bred this species before so I don't know how many spiderlings they generally produce, time will tell. I counted the baby Whip scorpions and there are 11, they are quite big babies. My remaining two Fishing spiders are nearly adult, sadly the third one was eaten by a cricket during a moult last week. I was so upset, I hope the last two are male and female, I have no idea at the moment as they both look the same.

I am hoping that some people may decide to come and collect their orders from me before Christmas but at the moment I only have one person planning to call next week. I think it is probably likely to stay that way. Any orders that I receive now will be held over until January, I just hope that the weather improves and Royal Mail lift their ban by then. I will be available until next Tuesday but then I have plans to be out and about visiting friends and family (weather permitting). We will be visiting our new puppy next Wednesday, she is only three weeks old at the moment. We are really looking forward to seeing her as up until now we have only seen photos. She is a Eurasier, a fluffy Spitz type dog.

Lastly I have decided that my Christmas present to me (I have worked hard this year and been a good girl) is to keep the sub-adult Mexican Red Knee that I have on my site. I have half heartedly had him on my website for a few weeks but I really didn't want to sell him so I put him on at an inflated price and as 'collection only'. Lots of people have shown an interest but been too far away to call and collect him. I know someone would snap him up if I were prepared to post him but he's gorgeous and really friendly so I'm keeping him for myself! I say he, I haven't a clue but the spider is quite leggy so may be male or a skinny female. In any case I am calling him Simon and setting him up on my desk. I am naming him/her in honour of the brilliant guy who set up my brilliant website (and is always there to help when I run into problems). Watch this space as to whether Simon become Simone. My daughter's Mexican Red Knee is now 14 years old and looks amazing. If this new spider matures into a male I suppose I will have to introduce him to Stephanie but as she has never successfully mated I will be incredible careful. She has killed two males in the past before even getting to the mating stage!

Anyway I hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas, a Happy New Year and thank you all so much for your support in 2010. I really appreciate that I have some great customers/friends! x