Virginia Cheeseman Blog

The reptile show that I went to last weekend was very good, I was surprised how many spiders and bugs were on sale there. My main reason for going was to collect some Giant Train millipedes but I also picked up several other species of millipedes. Of course I also purchased some more spiders and a few scorpions and other interesting creatures. I was very restrained and didn't buy any more leaf eating insects. I seriously need to cut down on these before the winter weather really sets in. Digging bramble out from under snow is no fun at all but looking on the bright side perhaps we won't have any snow this winter! I was very pleased with my new millipedes, they are popular pets and I haven't managed to get any new ones in for a while now. The price of millipedes certainly seems to have gone up over the last couple of years, it would be great if I could actually breed some of these. I have had several orders for them this week, since adding them to the site on Monday. Sadly I...

Not enough hours in the day, I'm not sure where my time goes but there is never enough of it, or perhaps it's just there is not enough of me to go around! I seem to be chasing my tail each and every day. There is so much admin to do, bugs to feed, bugs to send out, bugs arriving and I am constantly washing out cages and containers. I honestly don't know anyone else who runs an entire animal based business on their own. Most people really appreciate how hard I work but some people just expect too much. I am often moaned at for not posting something on the day it is ordered, I am highly organised, I need to be and each day is planned, I cannot slot in extra jobs or I would never get to bed at night. I feel that I have been super efficient this week. I have been desperately trying to get on top of things and to a certain extent it has worked. I have finally sorted out my 'shipping' page (information box on left of site), it now shows the countries that I post to. I ...

Eleven weeks until Christmas, that's what my daily update from Royal Mail said this morning. What a depressing thought, it has been warm and sunny today and long may it continue. I keep getting emails from Royal Mail telling me that it is the last day to post to outer Mongolia or somewhere like that. I just hope they don't decide to cancel the next day delivery guarantee on Special Delivery this year. I know the weather was pretty bad but not the entire month of December and that's how long their ban lasted (what a great excuse to not give anyone their postage back when a parcel was delayed). Anyway back to sunny October - I have had lots of new stock in this week. Yesterday I had a multitude of spiderlings arrive, I'm not sure how many species but lots! I have entered them all on the site today, it took me until 8pm last night to feed and house them all. I even dragged my husband out to the bug house to help, now that is really desperate. He didn't get involved wit...

October now and getting colder but the beginning of the month was great and on the day of the AES exhibition last Saturday, the weather was hot and sunny. I have been attending the exhibition for many years and it is generally extremely cold in the hall, so it certainly made a nice change. It was really lovely to meet so many of my customers, most of who I had only spoken to on the phone or conversed with by email. Lots of people came up and introduced themselves and this certainly made it a fun day. I took along stick insects, cockroaches and a few other animals, plus equipment. I think I got it just about right, we certainly made enough to cover the cost of the tables and some of my new purchases. I thought I had bought lots of new things but once home, I realised how little I had purchased. I proved my point to myself, it isn't really possible to buy and sell at an exhibition. I did get some interesting stick insects (yes, I know the idea was to cut down on plant eating bugs bef...

The things I get myself into! I can't believe I signed up to do a stand at the AES exhibition, I just hope all this effort is worth it. I was working non-stop beforehand and all I have done is pile more work upon myself, I need a holiday but I have no chance of taking one at the moment. I am writing this blog a day early because tomorrow I will be packing bugs, labelling, printing care sheets and generally sorting out everything for the exhibition. The trouble is that I cannot compete on price when it comes to spiders as I don't import and there will be people at the exhibition who have imported spiders and other animals especially for the show (I spend my time caring for the animals that I keep, therefore ensuring that they go out in the best possible condition and judging by the super emails that I get each week, people are on the whole are very happy with that). I will be packing cockroaches, stick insects, beetles, millipedes, grasshoppers etc. but I will also be taking my ...

A busy week with lots of new orders. I have brought in quite a few spiders but I have also sent out a great deal, which is always good. I am busy preparing for the AES exhibition next week, it is several years since I manned a stall. I just hope I haven't bitten off more than I can chew. I intend to spend Friday packing up bugs for the show and then hopefully I will sell them all on the Saturday! In my dreams - sadly it is very difficult to know what will sell at an exhibition. I will mostly be taking animals that I have bred myself and plant eating bugs that I don't want to feed all winter. I doubt if I will take many spiders, although I think I should pack my multitude of adult males, in the hope that someone might want them! My daughter assures me that she will help pack things on Friday and then man the stall on Saturday. My husband will also be there to help but he has never been, and never will be keen on bugs. I certainly need time to mingle and pick up new stock. It is ...

I did it, I saw one! I went on the reptile walk last Saturday. It was a cool, overcast and windy day, my invitation had the wrong time on it so it took a while to join the group, as they were already off exploring but after a rocky start it was amazing. Thanks to the very knowledgeable local wildlife ranger, we saw lots of slow worms, several common lizards, a baby grass snake and last but not least an Adder! I actually only saw the tail end disappearing into the undergrowth but I was ecstatic, I have wanted to see an Adder in the wild for so long. As soon as the ranger said "there's one", I was over like a shot. Now that I know where to look I will certainly go back and search again. I learnt a lot on the walk, I'm amazed that British reptiles sometimes have their young in September, I cannot imagine that many survive the winter, especially the harsh winters that we have had over the last couple of years. That reminds me, I really must find time to look at four wheel...

Autumn is upon us and I don't like it! We have had nothing but rain and high winds this week, Teddi and I started a new dog training class and it was pitch black at 8.30pm. The summer seems a distant memory but I have been dreaming of next year's holiday. I say dreaming because between my work and the fact that my husband cannot have any time off during the London Olympics, I'm not sure when we can fit a holiday in next year. I was looking at Mexico (lots of bugs and reptiles) but it is hurricane season after the summer and we made that mistake before when we visited Mauritius. I will just have to look forward to Christmas and a bit of time off. There is certainly not enough of me to go around at the moment. My mother in-law came out of hospital on Monday, she is doing ok but after having a second hip operation she is pretty immobile. I was trying to get all my Monday morning posting done this week and I had non-stop phone calls about her care. I was tearing my hair out and...

Busy, busy, busy, week! I was delighted to receive a large number of orders over the Bank Holiday weekend. I'm assuming everyone has returned from their holidays and of course the schools and colleges are just about to begin a new term. My hubby and I had a good time in Brighton on Friday and Saturday. We visited our elderly ex-neighbours from way back and my cousin (who recently managed to break her leg at the same time as her German Shepherd dog, both are recovering nicely). I love Brighton, it is so vibrant and 'different' and it's got the only Debenhams store that I know with a sea view. My patient hubby also stood by and let me spend about an hour on the pier, playing the 2p slot machines (his job to go and get me another £1 of coins as I can't leave 'my' machine and it may have been a little over an hour!). I love them, it's such fun and I won three key rings! Yesterday was spent at the hospital with my poor mother in-law. She needed a second hip...

The wedding was amazing. We were so lucky with the weather, the day before the wedding everywhere was flooded in our area and the day after it rained quite a bit but Friday 19th August was sunny and warm. Everything went brilliantly, the bride looked stunning and I have never seen our son so happy. They bought me an acre of the Ecuador rain forest as my "mother of the groom" present, what a lovely, thoughtful gift. I won't fill up the blog with stories of our son's wedding (although I have lots of stories and I easily could). They are now honeymooning on an island off of Zanzibar. Alex rang yesterday to say there were giant Train millipedes roaming around, he was delighted to see them in the wild but his new bride was not so happy. I could hear her in the background shouting that I should have gone instead of her, well I did offer to go along but got a rude reply from my son. It seems ages since my last blog, it is two weeks and I am writing this one a day early beca...