 |
     
You
are reading the first journal of it's kind anywhere
in the herp world!!.............no bone-heads
were killed or injured while testing this product............make
no mistake............what you are about to read
is "the original"...............anything
else is a fake...............Ralphie......:)
*When
you "Mouse Over" the pics the descriptions
will pop up*.............also
"refresh" this page often.......and
don't forget that all past month's journal entries
are in the archives*
| JOURNAL_JUNE_2003 |
|
| Monday_June_30 |
| |
I
had the kids most of the day today ( Theresa
had a ton of work to get done ).............so
the first thing we did this morning was
start working on setting up all the baby
balls that have shed..........I had Brooke
cleaning water bowls and re-filling them,
and putting shredded cypress in each tub................
Kyle was handing me each snake, one at a
time from each clutch, so that I could re-sex
it, and draw a pic of it on the back of
it's ID card..............the kids actually
shaved an hour or so off of the work..............I
was impressed with both of them ..............especially
Brooke.......:)...............we got 40
babies or so all set up in their new homes.............Robbie
is up at the rat barn doing "Day One"
of the rat cleaning.................we were
supposed to go to the lake today and run
the Sea Doos around..............but we
are both too busy this week.............:(...........after
the kids and I finished up with the snakes...............I
took them to one of my favorite swamps to
look for herps.................we found
a nice little clear section of water that
was loaded with tadpoles................so
Brooke found a cup and started catching
them...............she ended up catching
4 tadpoles that "she liked"......a
half dozen baby crayfish and a snail.........LOL................there
were some really cool salamander larvae
swimming around..............but they were
too fast for Brookie to catch.......;)....we
played around there for a couple hours...............we
never seen any turtles?...................Kyle
is still wanting to catch a "Big Snapper".................we
found a container to bring the tadpoles
home in and called it a day............which
reminds me about a guy who called me up
a week or so ago, to tell me that my journal
inspired him to "stop traffic"
on a highway in New Jersey...............why??..............because
there was a "big mamma snapper"
crossing the highway........LOL..............he
called me just to tell me that he would
have never even gave the turtle a second
glance if he had not read about me saving
turtles in the journal.................you
made my day!!............get some pics next
time!!.............I'm sure that was a riot
...............I know how those "Jersey
People" can be when they are in a hurry........LOL..........Thanks!!!............"that's
good karma for sure "......so anyway
the kids and I got home and Fatty was at
my place................he was picking up
a master bedroom set that Theresa and I
didn't use anymore...........it is in the
spare bedroom ..............which is now
going to be Kyle's bedroom.........Kyle
is finally getting his own room!!................Theresa
ordered a new bed for him today..............it's
a race car bed.....LOL..................about
that time Phil and Robbin showed up..............it
was a full house!!................we got
Fatty all loaded up and I followed him to
his place to help him unload the stuff................Phil
and Robbin went to Mr. John's pond to fish............so
I helped Fatty get the bed upstairs and
then I went to Mr. John's pond to go fishing
too........;)..............we fished until
dark.................Robbin tore the bass
up using a rubber worm!! ( at my suggestion
:) )................a chick that can catch
bass????????................OMG!!.............after
that we all went up to the rat barn and
packed Phil's rodent orders for tomorrow...............then
we went to Taco Bell for a late night snack.......yuck!!!..........it's
been a long day............good bye June
2003............:) 
|
| |
| Sunday_June_29 |
| |
The
Colonial was pretty fun last night...............Fat
Ass actually sang too!!..............he sung
every song that I signed up for.............we
did a bunch of 80's rock songs...... .......the
good stuff............it must have been the
rum and coke.........;)................the
girls danced and danced and danced some more...............it
was a good time..................but poor
Phil was feeling pretty rough............he
got burned pretty bad on the boat while we
were out.............he was a hurtin' puppy...............We
all went to Big Rock and played volley ball
today...............Dougie had a collision
with another person on the court ( his son
Justi n
) and ended up cracking a rib.............Dougie
works for me doing Construction work...............so
I'm sure he will need some days off................you
big wuss!!!...............we played all day............after
we got home and got the kids in the bath..............I
decided to start working on all of my ID cards
for the new 03 baby balls..................300
plus balls this year..............that means
300 plus record cards to fill out!!.......I
like to stay on top of the cards............as
soon as the clutch hatches and I have everything
sexed out.............I start writing cards
and updating the inventory in my PC.......I
need to pay some chick to do the cards for
me.......:).......my writing sucks pretty
bad after filling o ut
the first few........LOL...............I got
ball python clutch # 59 today..............from
breeding a DH Snow " VPI" male to
a female that is 100% het for Albino and 50%
poss het for Snow "VPI"..................6
eggs...............this is the second out
of the three poss het females I'm expecting
eggs from this year!!.................come
on more Snows!!!...........:)............eight
clutches left to go this year!!.............I
think?.......... |
| |
| Friday_June_27 |
| |
T's
girl friend Chris is coming down to visit
this week-end from Massachusetts..............we
are all planning to get together with "The
Gang" and go to The Colonial tomorrow
night for Kareoke............maybe Sandy
and I will do more "Grease" songs.........LOL.............that
was fun!!...............all Robbie the Robot
has to do today is check the rat room for
floods and water a few buckets...........I'm
sure he likes that..............he's pretty
funny........... ...I
told him that I would take him out to dinner
for his Birthday...........well last night
before he left he said that all I had to
do was give him a hundred bucks........LOL...........he
gets an A for effort ...........I gave him
the money.............:)............clutch
# 58 came late in the day yesterday.........so
I just let the female stay on the eggs till
this morning................so I got her
clutch set up..............looks like 9
more clutches to go?....................what
a year!!!...............I bred 72 females..............and
I'm getting 67 clutches..................not
bad at all...........:)..............I will
also be setting up some of the ball pythons
individually today.............I set them
all up after they have their first shed...............I
keep them as a group on moist paper towels
until then..............after they all shed.............I
get a "group photo" for the Birthing
Records page...............then they all
get set up by their lonesome............if
you stay on top of it, it ain't so bad.............but
if you slack a little............. ..you
end up getting stuck setting up a couple
dozen snakes in a day............that's
a lot of cards to fill out............cages
to set up...............and pics to take...............so
I try to do each clutch as soon as they
shed...............I will get the Birthing
Record page updated today too..................I'm
looking forward to not doing much of anything
this week end..............maybe some fishing
tomorrow...............and volley ball on
Sunday..............I may go fishing tonight?...............I'm
not sure yet............I'm writing today's
entry earlier than I usually do.............so
some stuff may happen today that ain 't
written here......LOL................I will
put it in Saturday's entry if it happens.................maybe
I will catch a world record large mouth
bass tonight??.........have a great weekend
EVERYONE!!..................and ROCK ON!!............I'm
outa here!!.............
clutch
# 14's details inside!! |
| |
| Thursday_June_26 |
| |
Robbie
and I pulled all the rodents that were in
the cages over night this morning ( yes I
leave prey items in with some snakes over
night..........it's flat out part of keeping
ball pythons )..........then Robbie started
cleaning the snake cages..............I got
clutch # 5 7
and # 58 today.............clutch # 57 was
from breeding a Piebald male to an Albino
female............5 eggs.............all of
these babies will be double het for Albino
Piebald..........I produced double het for
Lavender Albino Piebalds last year...........:).........clutch
# 58 was from breeding a Lesser Platty male
to a Blonde Pastel female........this should
hopefully make a gorgeous "cross"
between the two mutations ..............I'm
hoping for a "new morph"..................:)................Jody
worked up at the rat barn today finishing
up all of the electrical w ork..............so
now that's all done............and man is
the place bright when you hit the lights..............I
can't believe we used to work in such dim
light??.............it's awesome!!..............I
get excited about the stupidest stuff don't
I?.........LOL.............Sandy ( Fatty's
wife ) stopped by this afternoon so that I
could remove six stitches from her thigh..............:).............yepper...............she
had a lump removed and they stitched her up.............they
did a crappy job too............so I c leaned
up my soucher scissors ( the scissors that
I snip eggs with ) and went to work..............they
were all scabbed over and hard to get too...............but
I got them all out................Dr Davis
is in the house!!!..................I worked
on the web site for most of the day..........I
usually size my pics for the journal as I
take them ( that way I do not get loaded up
with pics )..............but I was so "weirded
out" this week with "Karma"
that I didn't do any pic sizing.............so
today I sized a bunch of pics and started
writing.............yada, yada,yada.............Mr.
John called me today and asked if I was too
busy to come over to the barn and install
an exhaust fan for him...............his son
Mike has a glass cutting business in the top
part of the barn.............right above where
our rats are kept............anyway............they
wanted an exhaust fan installed over the bench
where they polish and grind the glass ...............they
needed something to pull the dust out............so
Mike bought a fan........I called Phil up
and told him that Mr. John asked for our help
on the "project"..............so
Phil and I hooked up and installed the fan
for Mr. John ( more brownie points..........besides............I
was tired of sitting at the computer )..........everyone
has to "bite cheese" sometimes........;).................it
took us an hour or so...........it was pretty
simple...........the inside of the shop was
just styro board.............and the outside
was wood with metal over it...............we
made a pattern of the fan and cut out the
hole ( circl e
).............installed the fan........then
we went outside and weather proofed it.................done
deal.......;).............we had just enough
time left when we were done to go down to
the pond and fish.............we fished for
a half hour or so..............I caught a
couple............Phil rolled a few over..................the
bats were flying around the pond in swarms
tonight..............they were dive bombing
the lure as I casted it......it was nuts!!.............I
thought for sure that one of the bats was
going to get my lure before it hit the water..............they
were having a ball eating bugs around the
pond............we called Fatty to see if
he wanted to fish...............I can't believe
it?...............he said he was too tired
today........LOL..........that's Ok Fatty..............you
didn't miss much............I just got home
and Robbie is all done his work..............he
won't have to come work with the snakes tomorrow..............he
busted ass and got it all done today............now
Robbie knows the benefits of being paid a
salary......... .....he
gets the same money no matter how long he
works..............so if he wants to work
four long days instead of 5 normal days..............it
works for me..............he knows what needs
to be done..............and I give him 5 days
to do it................he will need the five
days once the 03 babies are all in the racks!!..............that's
for sure......;).............I have the journal
written now..............I think I explained
what is going on with Karma's clutch pretty
well...............if she was not in the clutch
it would have just been what I expected ...............a
clutch where I should have produced some type
of "cross" between two co-dom traits
...............which I believe I did..............Karma
was
just a bonus!!...............her and her clutch
mates are doing just fine..............they
are all just starting to haze up for their
first shed......;)................I'm a happy
camper this week........and a wreck all at
the same time.................who would have
ever thought that I would have two white snakes
in my rack system within a month's time??...............not
me!!..............anyway.............that's
how it all went down..............I explained
it in better detail in the entries below.................I
juts got lucky.................:)...........Good
Karma baby!!!................do you believe
in Karma?............. |
| |
| Wednesday_June_25 |
| |
Today
is feeding day...........ALL the snakes get
fed on Wednesday's now............700 plus
the 400 on the way!!............you guys better
buy from me this year!!!...............I need
room bad!!..............but most of all I
need a new swimming pool, a Dodge Viper and
a new  boat.............LMAO!!..............don't
you just love it!..........I wrote that because
of some of the ads I see on Kingsnake................everyone
has a reason to sell cheap............the
big "one time offer"..............."
need money fast".............."previous
customers will be rewarded"...........great
stuff................I would like to go on
the record as saying that I sell my snakes
for primo dollar..............and I will never
have to worry about any past customers getting
a chapped ass because my prices fluctuate
like the wind ( is there some law that states
that each year the price has to drop? )................if
snakes sit on the shelf.. ........so
be it.............they only become more valuable......:).............I
got clutch # 56 today.......from breeding
a Double Het for Snow VPI male to a female
that is 100% het for Albino and 50% poss het
for Snow VPI..............I did this three
times this year.............I expect three
clutches from poss het females ( VPI ).................:)................not
to mention that I did get eggs from a DH Snow
female.................so I expect some VPI
Snows this year............."with some
luck".................:)..............I
have ten or eleven more clutches to go this
year...............I expect 66 or 67 clutches
to finish the year...............and some
of my best clutches have not been laid yet.............like
Lesser x Blonde Pastel..................Lesser
x Pastel...............I have a het Stripe
female who will be laying eggs...............I
want to
hatch out some Striped babies bad!!........so
I'm still just pluggin' away.............I
have 15 clutches out so far...............setting
each snake up individually and giving them
all and ID # is what takes the time..............then
I draw each snake on the back of it's record
card..............and then I take pics!!!...........aghhhhhhhhhhhh................I
made this much work for myself............so
there is no reason to complain.................:)..............all
I know is that I will be setting up baby snakes
until September ...............I still say
I'm taking the next season off..............or
doing very little breeding.......;)...............it
will give you all a chance to catch up..................LOL..........;P..................I
hatched out three gorgeous male Pieds today........... .I
have produced very few female Pieds in my
years at breeding them............and they
are what I want / need to keep back and raise
up.................I have two more clutches
that could produce Pieds...............both
are from poss het females...............so
I'm hoping....;)..............I took it easy
on my Pieds this year...................I'm
expecting one clutch of DH for Albino Pied
soon..........;)................I don't care
what anyone says.............and Albino Pied
will be awesome .................a Lavender
Albino Pied will be better.............but
both will be awesome snakes...............and
they will be simple recessive ...............a
" real morph"................LOL..........More
paper work today..............I fed all of
the adult boas and ball pythons..............Robbie
took care of the babies and yearlings..............after
that............I plante d
my ass in the chair and got some office work
done............"Karma" has me all
messed up.............I can't think straight
this week.........:)......I managed to get
all my monthly ending stuff done..............I
turn my books over to the accountant at the
end of each month..........so I print out
all my monthly reports and payroll stuff and
send it out to him............Jody worked
at the rat barn hanging the lights on the
ceiling yesterday..............holy cow!!......what
a difference it made.............we were practically
working in the dark...............the barn
has lights.............but they are just old
single bulbs that "flicker"............LOL.................so
now we are in business!!..............I went
up to the rat barn after all my offic e
work was done..............I needed to hose
out the swamp cooler.................it gets
pretty nasty inside from pulling all the outside
air through it................so it's good
to wash it out and hose off the pads a couple
times a year................then I climbed
up a ladder and cleaned out the gutters on
Mr. John's barn ( brownie points )............30
feet up in the air too!!.................I'm
getting to old for this crap.................Phil
and Robbie came up too................so they
were able to help lug the heavy ladder around
and raise it up to the gutters......after
all the cleaning was done.............we all
went fishing again.............Fatty, Phil,
Robbin and I................we fished until
10:30 pm..............we caught a bunch of
Bass while it was still light..............then
we broke out the lanterns and put chicken
livers on our hooks.............we were hoping
to catch some catfish...............we didn't
though..............all we caught was one
huge white perch...............and it was
 hooked
in the gut.............so we had to put it
in the cooler..............Robbin had a friend
who wanted any fish we caught..........so
somebody is gonna be eating white perch this
week.......;)................we all went to
Denny's to eat after that................I
got home around midnight ...............checked
on "Karma"................she is
all bundled up with her clutch mates.............she
is going into her first shed................"Lilly"
is in shed too.................this is her
second shed..............she eats like a champ!!................I
hope " Karma" eats well for me too............... |
| |
| Tuesday_June_24 |
| |
Well
the little snakelets' in clutch # 14 are out
of the egg!!.............and they all look
great...............here is what I produced
from this clutch.............1.1 " normal
looking "............2.0 "Phantom"............0.1
"Lesser Platty"...............0.1
" looks like a Blonde Pastel crossed
with a Phantom?"...............and 0.1
"Blue Eyed Lucy"................damn
right  baby!!!.............I
even said after I shelled out the $70,000.00
for "Lilly" that " I would
hatch my own"...............and her she
is!!..............her name is "Karma"............LOL............this
clutch has made my entire year!!.............I
produced "Phantoms" for the third
year in a row...............I proved that
"Lessers" bred to a normal will
produce more Lessers................I got
the "Cross" that I was after.............even
though I have no idea what the hell it is??.................and
I got a "Lucy"................now
how is that for a clutch???...............who
knew??................I think I did in the
back of my mind..............it is totally
unreal!!............and I believe that this
clutch was "fathered" by two males................this
is the second time I have done this.............the
first time was when I bred a VPI Axanthic
male and a Lavender Albino male to a Lavender
Albino female................it was the same
situation .............I had follicles in
the fema le
that were maturing ..............I added another
male into the mix at that time...............and
pow!!.............the clutch was 4 eggs..................1.0
lavender Albino and 0.3 "normal looking"
Double het for Lavender Albino Snow were produced.............two
dads for sure!!.................now it is
possible that the "Lesser" male
is the "sole dad".............but
I do not think so.............the "Cross
Snake" looks to much like some type of
a Pastel..............and there were two Pastel
males in the mix...............a regular Pastel...........and
a Blonde Pastel..............so I'm still
going to say that there are three things in
the mix...............Blonde Pastel.................Lesser
Platty...............and Phantom ...........needless
to say.............I will keep all seven of
these snakes in hopes that they are ALL "
het for Lucy".....................:).............all
I can say is that this is one hell of a mess??...............all
I know is what I can see...............the
"Ball Python Gods" really gave me
a precious gift in this clutch..............and
I'm thankful for it................don't worry. ..........I
won't go changing or acting snobby.............just
because I have two Snow Balls..........."Lilly"
and now "Karma"..............that
ain't no reason to toot my horn..............I'm
still the same "Boner".......( man
is this getting thick or what........LMAO
)........but it sure feels good to get under
the skin of people who have wronged you in
the past .............especially over a "white
snake"...............I love it!!........eat
your heart out bad people!!!!................KISS
MY ASS!!!.............I posted a picture of
"Karma" up on the web today...............I
was going to wait.............but I couldn't
stand it anymore.......;)...............I
want to thank everyone for their kind words
and support............:)..............I know
my email program has been working overtime
today...............LOL.................I
can't wait to get a picture of "Karma"
and "Lilly" together................they
are definitely two different mutations ...........I
believe " Lilly"
will get more color with age................."Karma"
will probably stay pure white with a pale
stripe down her back................and those
BLUE EYES!!!!!!!.............only time will
tell..............how can I complain about
something this great.............this was
better than winning the lottery if you ask
me...............now all I can think about
is the other clutch I have in the incubator.............from
breeding a "Phantom" female to a
"Lesser Platty" male..............that
was all I did ( one male )................so
hopefully this will shed some light on what
is going on??................and if there
is another white snake in this clutch??.................I
will drop dead from shock!!!..............LMAO!!...............Believe
it or not.............I got a bunch of paper
work done today.............the phone was
off the hook............."Karma"
has everyone asking questions...............one
thing I will not do people.................I
won't hide anything that I do.................here
it is, just the way it went down.................if
you have the snakes to produce a "Lucy".................I
wish you all the luck in the world!!..............I
still say it's all luck on the first time..............but
luck works for me........;)................I
got 10,000 "Midas" removable tattoos
in the mail today................I asked Phil
to research getting me some cool little "Midas"
removable tats for  Daytona..............he
found a company that made them at a great
price.............we ordered 10,000 of them................5,000.00
are "Midas" with a green crown...............5,0000
are "Midas" with a pink crown.................for
the ladies!!!.............my kids couldn't
wait to put them on................Fatty put
one on the back of his clean shaven bald head
and went home to his wife Sandy.................she
thought it was real..........LOL...............they
look awesome!!!..............I have them now...............and
a brand new "Albino Version" of
Midas on a T-shirt..................Midas
rules!!!!!..............the "Albino Midas"
looks great!!!.............Phil, Robbin, Fatty
and I went fishing down at the pond today..............I
had "Little Gump" with me..................he
loves to fish............but when he is there.............all
I'm doing is baiting the hook............every
cast gets you a Blue Gill in this pond..............they
are that thick!!!.................and "Little
Gump" loves reeling them in.........;)..................Phil
and Fatty caught some nice Bass while they
were there........ ......Robbie
finished the rat room today...............it
takes him two days to completely clean the
rat room..............that's cleaning ............feeding............watering
the buckets, and sweeping / blowing the place
out..................so this new schedule
will work great!!................2 days for
rats..............1 day to feed snakes.................2
days to clean snakes................:)............I
have looked at " Karma" so much
since the first time I cut the egg that I'm
seeing white spots!!!................I'm ate
up with it big-time, this week.............that's
for damn sure!!............ROCK ON PEOPLE!!!!................... |
| |
| Monday_June_23 |
| |
I
got ball python clutch # 55 today, from breeding
a normal female to a Red Axanthic male.............4
eggs.................I have hatched out two
clutches so far from the Red Axa nthic
male this year.............all of the babies
are "Black Backs"...............and
so is the Red Axanthic male ( a Black Back
to the extreme ).............so this has to
be a new co-dom mutation.................the
Red Axanthic is the "Super".................big
congrats to Corey Woods up in Canada for being
the first person to produce this new mutation.................it
will make one hell of a "combination
snake"................as the Red Axanthic
matures..............it becomes a "flesh
color"...............they are gorgeous
animals!!...............It look s
like pairs of "Black Backs" will
be $10,000.00 for the pair................and
the "Super" ( Red Axanthic ) will
be $20,000.00...........I'm sure glad I was
able to get a male off of Corey when I did.......;)..............Lou
and I hooked up today to pick up all of the
metal for our snake racks that Lou is building.................he
used to work at a metal fabrication company.............so
he has the "connections" there to
order and cut all of the metal parts for the
snake racks he is building..............he
is hoping to be able to bring these cages
to "market" by the end of the year.............as
long as I get mine first!!.........;).................we
had to make two trips with my truck............we
bought enough metal to build four baby snake
racks...............we have the tubs being
molded..............and we have a powder coater
lined up..............so this is actually
starting to materialize...........we had this
planned for a long time.............but then
Lou's mom passed away and it slowed things
down................then Lou falls in love
with a little China girl............and that
slowed things up even more!!.........LOL..............but
"it's all good" now................roll
the presses Big Lou!!!...........get'er done
man!!.................Today is Robbie the
Robot's birthday..... ...Happy
Birthday Robbie!!!............he is working
up at the rat barn.............today is the
first day on our "new schedule"...............rats
get done on Monday's and Tuesday's now.............I
met with Jody ( my electrician ) at the rat
barn today to show him what I need to have
done there..............we had a new service
put in a month or so ago..............so now
Jody is hooking up all of the existing electrical
stuff to the new panel................he is
also hanging a bunch of fluorescent lights
on the ceiling .............which we desperately
need!!.................so that will be nice...............he
will be starting the job tomorrow.......;).................Fatty
and I went fishing this evening.............yepper.............we
are eaten up with "the fishin' bug "................I
came home
and seen that my "Lucy" was ready
to come out of it's "Little pen"................LOL............I
have never in my life had to confine a snake
to a little "egg pen"...............it
worked like a champ...............it kept
it in the egg and "still" long enough
to absorb the yolk.................so I removed
the screen cover and let it be................the
others all had their heads out of the egg.................I
see two Phantoms, two normals, one Lesser,
one very pale headed snake?????..................and
a "Blue Eyed Lucy"..............HOLY
SHIT BATMAN!!!!!!!!!...............so they
should be out of the egg in the next day or
so...............I'm so stoked................what
a bunch of "mutts" this clutch produced................I
still can't believe all of this??????????? |
| |
| Sunday_June_22 |
| |
We
went to "Big Rock" and played volley
ball all day today.............and man was
it hot!!...........there were a lot of "no
shows"................so we just had
two teams............which is the way I like
it..............three teams sucks...............if
you loose.......you have to sit out and watch
the other two teams play..............and
I hate sitting out..........:).................we
cooked out and jumped in the stream to cool
off......................we played all day........ .......after
that the family and I came home .............ordered
a pizza.............and watched "Catch
me if you can".............that movie
was not as good as it was hyped up to be,
in my opinion.............it was rather slow...............but
the fact that it was all true made it worth
watching............I had to put my little
white snake in a "pen" tonight...............yep.............I
have been looking at it and disturbing it
so much that it is trying to climb out of
the egg.............and it is not ready to
come out yet!!.............it still has some
yolk to absorb............the last thing I
need is for this snake to rip itself off of
the yolk and die.............baby ball pythons
after slitting the egg will stay in the egg
for a few days while they finish absorbing
the yolk..............they are attached to
the yolk by their umbilical cord...........once
the yolk is fully absorbed through the cord..............all
the red veins will disappear.............and
the umbilical cord will draw up inside of
the belly..............that's when the snake
will finally crawl out of the egg............but
if you mess with a snake and keep disturbing
it while in the egg...............it will
try to climb out.............and that is what
my white snake was trying to do................so
I put the egg in a ceramic crock...........I
raised the egg to the very top of the rim
with vermiculite...............then I put
screen over the top and secured it with a
rubber band...............pretty crazy stuff
huh??.................here I have this little
miracle in the egg and I'm messing around
with it so much that I could do it harm??.................I
can't help it............the snake is making
me crazy!! ..............bet ween
me looking at it every ten minutes since I
cut the egg and then Pete and I poking at
it, and trying to see the eyes while it was
in the egg..............it's a miracle that
it has not had a heart attack??.................but
anyway.............I have it all set up nicely
in it's little "egg pen"................it
has a day of yolk left to absorb ...............I'm
not going to mess with it anymore until tomorrow...............LOL..............yeah
right!!!...........I don't usually cut all
my eggs........I like to cut on day 55 on
clutches that could potentially have something
really cool inside the egg..............and
this clutch was very interesting to me.............here
is how it all went down...............I bred
my original "Phantom" female this
season.........she is right out of Africa................she
was imported as a baby and raised to breeding
size........she has been bred the two previous
years to my Goblin male...............both
years she has produced baby "Phantoms"........"Goblin
Markers" and normals..............the
"Goblin Markers" are called this
because they do look like they have many of
the "Goblin" traits..............but
not all of them..............so I have been
raising up all of the babies from the past
two years..............I have sold nothing...........so
knowing that my "Phantom" is co-dom.............I
figured this year I would breed her to another
co-dom mutation.............I started off
the year breeding her with one of her totally
normal looking sons ( # 1 ).............yes............he
was not a " Marker" or a "Phantom"..............he
just looked normal...........this was "dinking"
to the fullest...........well nothing was
happening.............her son did not seem
interested at all.................so the next
male ( # 2 )...............was a Pastel Jungle
that I produced a couple of years ago...............he
also showed no interest with her?....................so
the next male ( # 3 ) was a Blonde Pastel.........I
never seen him breed her...........b ut
at this point in time she was developing follicles
that I could feel.............and they were
definitely maturing..........I really wanted
to make sure that she got bred by a co-dom
mutation..............so I said "what
the hell"...............I put in a "Lesser
Platty" male ( # 4 )...............at
the size her follicles were.............I
was sure that she was going to produce viable
eggs from one of the three previous males............but
I put a "Lesser" in with her anyway................the
"Lesser" bred her like crazy..............he
is the only male that I can actually say I
seen hooked up with her....................so
there you have it...............she was with
4 different mutatuions..................and
6 different males .............because she
was bred by 3 different "Lesser"
males..............she laid 7 perfect eggs
for me................and that was that.................the
time came for the eggs to start hatching................so
on day 55 I cut open each egg................the
first egg I cut was a "Phantom"..............the
second egg I cut was a "Phantom"................the
third egg was a "Normal".................the
fourth egg was a "Normal"..................the
fifth egg was "Lesser Platty".............the
sixth egg was "The Cross" that I
was after in the first place...............I
was hoping that this breeding would produce
at least one cross ...........whether it was
Pastel x Phantom...............or Blonde Pastel
x Phantom................or Lesser Platty
x Phantom..............well the sixth egg
has to be "The Cross"...............the
snake has a crazy Blond Pastel pattern.................the
head looks like a Super Pastel...............but
there are also some "Phantom" characteristics
to it???????..................so who the heck
knows what the sixth egg is???..............then
we have the last egg..................egg
# 7................I cut this egg and seen
nothing but WHITE!!..............I thought
I was in the middle of a killer dream..............I
sat there on the floor of my incubator room
and just thought to myself............"what
the hell is this?"................"
why me?"..............."Thank You
GOD!!!!!"...............then I thought
to myself how I have been predicting this
for a year..............I wished for this!!!..............and
it happened!!!...............I knew I had
to have been blessed with this snake because
of all the "bad karma" that was
in the air over my  previous
white snake dealings..........( which I intend
to write a complete article from beginning
to end on all of my experiences with "The
Lucy" )...............nothing will be
held back............NOBODY on this earth
is more qualified to write this article more
than me............once people read what actually
has gone down through the years with the "white
snake" dealings..............they will
see how me hatching this " lucy"
has made the entire experience come "full
circle"...............it is just too
unbelievable to imagine that this has happened.................I
call it luck...................I'm sure the
white snake is "genetic" in itself.................but
for me to have done this with the mess I was
working with was just luck...................one
female..............6 males....................she
was bred by 4 off the six males for sure..............I
believe that the Blonde Pastel and The Lesser
Platty are the fathers of this clutch................both
of them...............:)..................where
"The Blue Eyed Lucy" came from??..................I
say the Ball Python Gods.................It's
good to be KING!!!.............:P...... |
| |
| Saturday_June_21 |
| |
Well.........we
all ended up going to The Colonial to play
shuffle board last night.............T and
I........Phil and Robbin..........and some
of T's family.............I was all ready
to call it a day last night, when T told me
that they all asked if we could get together
to play...........so we did....... .:)...........it
was fun!!............four teams instead of
eight?..............so we didn't have to sit
and wait too long............Phil and I met
up this morning and headed up to the garage
where I store my Sea Doos................yepper..............we
are taking the boats out on the Chesapeake
Bay today for some fun in the sun.......;)...........we
had to fix one of my side marker lights on
the trailer before we left............Phil
replaced them both........then we loaded up
the trailer and headed off for some fun.............we
had a blast.............we ate lunch at a
restaurant right on the water ( the same place
I dropped Uncle Joey's keys )................we
took the boats a couple miles up a really
cool river that zig zaged like a road race
track............it was great!!...............it
looked like it could have rained all day.............but
it didn't...........we got lucky.............it
has only rained everyday for the past month
it seems!...........we ran around a few hours
and headed back to the boat ramp................we
did drive our boats around Fort McHenry.............that
is where the Star Spangled Banner was wriiten...............it
was really cool..............all the canons
are there pointing out at the harbor.............it's
hard to believe the way battles used to be
fought?................we loaded up and headed
back home.............Fatty called me on the
Nextel and said he wanted to go Bass fishing.............so
he and I met up at the pond.............we
did pretty well until the damn rain started........LOL.............yepper..............it
finally caught me.. ..........and
it rained cats and dogs................we
got out of there and up the hill just in time..............Rob
and Sandy ended up coming over this evening
and we watched a movie called "Ghost
Ship".............it was really good...............the
opening scene is crazy...........It was a
very original way to cut up a bunch of unsuspecting
victims......LOL........if you like horror.................check
it out...............then we watched the Lenox
Lewis fight..............what a joke that
was.................here you have a guy like
Lenox, who is capable of kicking the crap
out of the best heavy weights in the division................give
him some dough.............and TIME OFF.........and
you are left with a tired, out of shape boxer.............he
won the fight on a TKO..............the Russian's
eye was cut to badly to continue the fight.............and
Lenox should be damn glad that that is how
the fight ended..............the Russian kicked
his ass!!........and was ahead on all of the
judge's score cards...........it kills me
to see a boxer have a "bad night'................it's
not like they don't know it's coming?................Lenox
thought he had an easy win...............so
he didn't train..............and it showed...............he
made me tired just watching him..............anyway.............the
fight sucked.............I hatched out a cute
little Clown ball female today...............she
was produced from a 50% poss het female that
I kept back for myself a couple years ago................I
was really happy to see her poking her little
head out of the egg...............there is
no mistaking a Clown's head.............I
also have a really interesting couple of snake's
in the
egg from clutch # 14.............it is 7 eggs
( yepper..........4's and 7's again......;)
)...........and one of the babies looks to
be WHITE??..................there is another
one in the egg that has a gorgeous faded head
like a Super Pastel..............I cut the
eggs on Thursday...............I have been
a nervous wreck ever since I seen the white
snake..................Pete Kahl even came
over to see it in the egg for himself...............we
both stood there in the incubator room and
scratched our heads??................it has
to be "pure luck" I say...............I
have been crapped on so many times by fellow
breeder's and exporters over "White Snakes"
over the past few years.............I figure
I deserve it.......;)...............not to
mention that I wished terrible things to happen
to all of them as well.......;P................"what
goes around comes around"..............I
believe that to the bone............so that's
my explanation................:).................more
on "The Lucy" in the days to come.............. |
| |
| Friday_June_20 |
| |
Robbie
has pretty much an easy day today................it's
raining AGAIN!!...............my internet
connection is working great!!...............better
than it ever did!!...............I'm working
in
the office finishing up all my paper work
today...............I have the journal written.............I
have a bunch of pics to size and get uploaded
to the web..............I'm still laughing
at the pics I have of Big Lou and his wedding.............I
can't believe he married Xulin while he was
in China..............I snapped a pic of "his
pics"..........as I was working on them
in Adobe............I was just laughing..........it's
all I could do............the pics are too
funny..............and boy is Xulin  a
total foxy mama!!...............you did damn
good Lou!!...............Peter Kahl is on
his way over today...........he has some supplies
for me and wants to check out some animals
I have here............we will probably hang
out for most of the day.............he's very
excited because he just closed the deal on
120 acres of ground that he bought...........he
will be building a huge log home on the property.............and
most of all..............he will have plenty
of room to ride his dirt bikes............Pete
lives to ride his dirt bikes!!...............I'm
even gonna buy a four wheeler so that I can
run around with him................he's telling
me to buy a  "Grizzly"...............I
don't know much about bikes yet................but
it sounds pretty tough.......;).......anyway..............things
are starting to get hectic around here...............I
have 54 clutches out...............12 more
to go................ a bunch of clutches
hatched out..............I expect one more
litter of boas to be born in 90 days or so.................and
that will be that................Daytona is
right around the corner..............God time
flies when your breeding ball pythons...............did
I mention that I'm taking this coming season
off??..............have a great week-end everyone!!!............I'm
not sure what my plans are for tomorrow................probably
RAIN!!............ |
| |
| Thursday_June_19 |
| |
Robbie
is cleaning the adults today...........he
is in good shape too..............because
we are not cleaning the rodents this week...............we
are letting them go till Monday..........the
"New Schedule"..............they
will be pretty "ripe" by then.............but
we have to do it that way...........there
is no sense in cleaning them at the end of
this week, just to do it again on Monday................so
we are stretching it two more days..............fortunately
this week has been pretty cool in temperature............so
the rats don't smell that bad  anyway................yet!!.........So
Robbie will pretty much have Friday off this
week.............all he has to do is check
the rat room for floods and water a few buckets.......;).............I
still have no internet connection today?................so
I called "a Supervisor" and yelled
at them............I was able to get my "repair
date" moved up to the 21st.............whoop-dee-doooooooo..............I
told them that it was unacceptable............and
that I need it done sooner...........they
said that Saturday the 21st was the best they
could do...........so I called my computer
buddy Jeff...............he came over and
said that my modem was probably bad.................so
we went out and bought a new modem...............I
bought him lunch for that......;)...........AND
gave him some T-shirts...............we came
home and hooked it up... ...........we
called the cable company and told them that
we installed a new modem...............all
the cable company had to do was get the new
MAC # programed into the system................it
was that simple..............I was up and
running immediately............so now I'm
happy again.................and boy did I
pull down some emails.............if I have
not emailed you back........please shoot me
another email..............it is possible
that my mail box got to full and "bumped"
a bunch of emails................so I'm back
up and running..............I spent most of
the day answering emails.........;)...............Phil
came over today.............he was off of
work...............he has been fixing up hi s
Sea Doo so that we can go out riding together..............he
needed some parts and asked me if I wanted
to go down to the Sea Doo shop with him.............I
said "sure".............so we met
up and went to the Sea Doo shop................we
stopped and got me a brand new pair of Revos
first.............;P...............another
pair to loose on the water..............I
hope not!!................so we went to the
Sea Doo shop and Phil was able to get what
he needed..............I got a new pair of
water shoes and a couple cases of Sea Doo
oil...............Fatty hit me on the Nextel
while I was heading back home..............he
wanted me to meet him at the "fishing
hole"............so I told him I would
see him there..............I had to drop Phil
off at his truck and I would be right over.................well
you know what happened?................yepper..............it
started raining it's butt off just as I was
getting ready to leave to  go
fishing.............it never fails this summer.............it
rains every evening!!..............I called
Fatty and told him that a storm was on it's
way to him................so he rolled out
before it got too muddy............he did
tell me that he caught a 21 incher..............that
is the biggest bass that we have caught so
far at Mr. John's pond........I got ball python
clucth # 54 today.........from breeding my
"Anery" male to a het daughter that
I produced...............so hopefully I can
get this gene figured out??..............I
got 4 eggs............I'm hoping to see a
little baby "Anery" poke it's head
out of the egg in 56 days..........;)........I
have some pretty cool stuff hatching right
now............I have a baby Clown or two?
hatching from breeding a het Clown male to
a 50% poss het Clown female. ............I
hand picked her from the poss hets I produced
a few years ago.............and damn if she
did not "prove out"...............that
always makes you happy................:)............I
have two clutches from the "Red Axanthic"
male that have hatched.............ALL are
killer looking aberrant Black Backs..............very
similar to the Red Axanthic father ( but not
his cool color )..............so I would have
to say that the Red Axanthic is the "Super"................I
will produce three clutches this year from
him................Red Axanthic bred to a
normal  produces
all " Black Backs"..............just
like breeding a Super Pastel to a normal.............all
the babies are Pastels................this
seems to be the same exact thing................so
the Red Axanthic is a brand new "Co-Dom"
mutation ..................awesome!!!................my
Laby x Laby clutch hatched..............all
the babies appear normal................so
I'm hoping that this will be a simple recessive
mutation..............I hatched out 4.1.............yikes!!!.............It
can't be co-dom.............I bred two "Labys"
together..............now they may not be
the exact same thing as each other...............but
if either were co-dom............I would have
expected to see a baby "Laby"............besides..............we
need more simple recessive traits damn it!!...............so
as long as this project has taken me to get
eggs...............it looks like another couple
years now................:)..............my
Ringer x Ringer clutch produced some Ringers............nothing
crazy............but they are Ringers................and
they all look like Het Piebalds??...............yepper................I
have the eye for picking out het Pieds. .............most
of the time anyway...............and these
babies look like het Pieds??................why?..............I
have no idea?.................is that really
nice Ringer male I have actually a Pied??...............who
knows?...................damn it's fun!!...............nothing
crazy is hatching yet..............but it
will...............this is my year to produce
some wacky new mutations...............and
hopefully my "Lucy"................everybody
else is producing them "out of the blue"................why
can't I???............I love it!!!..........I
got the Birthing Record page completed tonight..............54
clutches baby!!!......Rock On People!!!....... |
| |
| Wednesday_June_18 |
| |
Today
we fed all of the adults balls and boas........everything
is eating like mad!!.............I have some
ball python females eating four small rats
at a clip ..............their nuts!!.............I
love it though!!................I love it
when everyone kicks back into feeding mod e
................during breeding season even
the younger yearlings stop eating............it's
just part of ball pythons..........I used
to freak out..............now I don't let
it bother me..............if they eat......they
eat..............if they don't..........I
don't sweat it anymore..............it just
sucks when you want to raise up your females
and they go off feed...............but it
happens.............it kinda "levels
the playing field".... ........after
we fed the adults.............Robbie started
cleaning.............I worked in the office
most of the day after that..............my
internet connection went down for some reason
today...............it has not come back up
all day??............I have been on the phone
off and on most of the day with the cable
company trying to trouble shoot the problem.............they
can't see anything wrong?..............so
they scheduled me a repair date of June 26th...............yeah
right!!..............I told them that I could
not be with out an internet connection for
even one day........let alone a week!!...............so
they said they would see if they could get
it moved up...............yeah right..............I'm
pissed..............I get
a couple hundred emails a day...............if
I do not download emails all day.............I
will get swamped!!.................a week's
worth of emails will kill me.............LOL..............so
I'm going to give them the rest of the day
to solve the problem.............if they don't...........then
tomorrow I'm on the phone to corporate headquarters
and I'm raising hell!!..........;)..............since
the internet connection was down............I
could not do any updates to the site..............so
Fatty and I took our kids fishing........;)...............we
went to Mr. John's pond again...............t he
kids really do well there.............The
Blue Gill are so easy to catch...............every
cast you make will catch a nice sized Blue
Gill............it's great for the kids............but
it sucks for the Dad's who are baiting the
hooks......;)..............Fatty and I did
some Bass fishing.............we did pretty
good............but not as good as last Saturday...............I
think we "educated" them that day.................we
fished until dark.............I got ball python
clutch # 53 today........from breeding a DH
Snow male " Jolliff " AND an Albino
PHSN male "Jolliff " to a 25% PDHSN
female "Jolliff "..........5 eggs.............LOL................who
knows????............ |
| |
| Tuesday_June_17 |
| |
Well,
Billy quit already............LOL..........Robbie
called me this morning and said that Billy
couldn't hack working with the snakes and
the rodents?............it's OK though...........it
ain't for everyone............but he seemed
totally fine with it.............I think the
other guy he
is doing landscaping work for offered him
more money..............that's cool............I
was paying him pretty good for a "probie"...............Robbie
is fine with it to.............he really only
needs help doing the rodents anyway................so
today Robbie and I made a new schedule................we
are doing the cleaning of the rodents on Monday's
and Tuesday's instead of Thursday's and Friday's...............the
snakes will be cleaned and fed on Wednesday,
Thursday and Friday.............the reason
we did this is because Robbie needs to have
a short day on Friday's..............he likes
to deliver Italian food for a local restaurant
near his house on Friday and Saturday nights................he
like s
the cash!!............so now he can take his
time and put in two good days cleaning the
rodents in the beginning of the week............yada,
yada, yada.........schedules!!...............gotta
love em'.............Robbie cleaned all the
rat holder bins today and loaded up the rodents
we need to feed the babies and the yearlings............We
got the place all fed up and that was that.............I
got a bunch of my office work done..............I
got ball python clutch # 52 today..............what
a disaster!!............all slugs............from
breeding a Striped male to an Albino female.............I
didn't even take any pics...............it
just sucked!!...............it happens though...........I
was able to produce a good clutch of Double
Het Striped Albino this year, so I'm happy...............:).............Theresa
came home from work and we ate crabs.. ..............we
had a bunch left over from the party on Sunday............her
Mom came by earlier and took a dozen crabs
home to make us all crab soup......;)..............Theresa's
Mom makes the best crab soup I have ever had..........I
finished watching the Godfather part two.............all
I can say is that I have no idea why these
movies never interested me to watch sooner???................I
have seen everything at least once from that
time period..............but never The Godfather
movies??...............I feel deprived now.........LOL..............watching
them sooner could have changed my whole outlook
on life.............like "Deliverance".............lmao!!.................I'm
out...........
|
| |
| Monday_June_16 |
| |
Robbie
is up at the rat barn loading up two deliveries,
that's all he has to do for the day............Theresa,
me and FOUR kids packed up our gear this morning
and headed to Raystown Lake for the day................yepper...........we
took Theresa's niece Kali and nephew Isac
( brother and sister )............Brooke and
" little gump"..............we got
 to
the lake at 1:30 and bought a camp site for
the day.............$12.50 per day............this
buys you a site at "Paradise Point"............the
only way to get there is by boat.........so
we unloaded the boats off of the trailer ...........packed
all of our picnicking stuff onboard and headed
off to "Paradise Point".........LOL..............we
had a blast!!...............both of the boats
were running like champs..............the
sun was shining.............the water was
warm..............the lake was not crowded
at all...............and the best part...............we
didn't run into any of the Police this time!!..............we
were prepared if we did............T and I
both got our safety certifications for being
on the water in Pennsylvania.....:)........We
ran the boats around the lake and did some
site seeing...........we went to a really
cool rope swing and played around on that
for awhile ...........I wish I didn't though
...........I lost my REVO Sunglass es........yepper.............I
pulled a bone-head move and swung out over
the water with my glasses on..........as soon
as I hit the water, they were gone...............I
can't keep a pair of sunglasses to save my
life........we got out of the water at 7:00
pm and headed back down the road................we
stopped and got some dinner on the way home.........the
kids were zonked out in the back of the Expedition..........we
got home at 11:00 pm.............we were total
mud!!.............all we did was wash off
and go to sleep.......zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz................. |
| |
| Sunday_June_15 |
| |
I
have to say.............after all that fishing
yesterday in the hot sun.............I was
not really in the mood to hang out at The
Colonial last night............but I stuck
it out.............we all had Sushi for dinner............then
we went to The Colonial.................we
had a good time...........Fatty's wife Sandy
and I sang two songs from "Grease"...............(
I
love Grease and so does Sandy )...........we
sang "Summer Lovin' " and "Your
the one that I want"...............they
were duets............and let me be the one
to tell ya............we sounded damn good!!.............Sandy
did a perfect "Sandy"............and
I didn't do a bad " Danny" myself.............it
was a riot!!...............then Sandy sang
a song by herself and dedicated it to Fatty............it
was so sweet...........and she sung it like
a pro...........we were all so shocked to
find out that Sandy could sing that well..............Fatty
didn't even know??. .........it
was a fun time...............the girls were
dancing like goofs and the guys were just
sitting back watching...............I was
thinking about sleep..............and how
fun it was at the pond LOL..............we
stayed till the end..........2 am.................I
couldn't wait to hit the sack!!..................Today
we went to "Big Rock"..............we
had some awesome games as usual ................three
teams this week.............my team didn't
win many games............but the games were
very close in points............the very last
game, I was on a three man team against a
four man team..............the score was tied
at 8 to 8...........we were having a blast...........we ll
Theresa come walking down from the top of
the hill and says that her mom's tail pipe
fell off??..................Theresa and her
mom had just left in T's mom's crappy van,
I was going to go home after the last game.............so
we stopped the game at 8 to 8 and we went
up to see what was wrong with Linda's tail
pipe?..................sure enough................she
ripped it off trying to get the van up the
muddy hill...............so we temporarily
fixed it...........so T and I followed Linda
out of the development to make sure everything
was OK..............as soon as Linda pulled
out onto the main road.............the damn
muffler fell off and started dragging the
road.............so she pulled over...............and
I yanked the damn thing off..............I
told her to go get a new muffler and exhaust
system on Monday..............it was toast.............here
I am.............a lard ass trying to squeeze
under her van ( with running boards)...............and
get the muffler untwisted from the drive shaft
and rear axle??.................I did it.............and
boy was I a greasy mess............so I sent
Linda home without an exhaust system...............and
man was it LOUD.........LMAO!!..............a
big ole' nasty looking conversion van running
up the road  sounding
like a heap of crap...........LMAO!!..............I
love picking on Theresa's mom..........:P...............Big
Lou picked us up two bushels of steamed crabs
today............we were having a big Father's
Day party at my place................My parents,
my younger brother ( Mike )................Phil
and his family ..............Theresa's mom
and her boyfreind........BIG LOU and Robbie
the Robot................and Mr. John too...............we
all ate steamed crabs and steamed shrimp outside
on my deck.................this was the first
time that any of us have seen BIG Lou in over
40 days................Lou is back from China..............he
was checked out after his 11 day quarantine
for SARS ( they say he is fine......cough...........cough
).............we all hung out and listened
to all of Lou's crazy stories about China...............and
his new BRIDE,,,,,,,,,,Xulin..................yepper...............Big
Lou married Xulin while he was in China.................he
brought back a wedding album loaded with pics.........you
have to see these pics to believe them............that's
all I can  say...............LOU............you
are way out of hand dude!!!.............we
all missed you...........and we are glad you
are back............if your happy ..............we're
happy bro!!..............congrats to you and
Xulin!!..............I can't wait to meet
her in person..............and tell her what
a goob you really are...........:P...............so
we all hung out and ate like piggies for the
rest of the night..........I got ball python
clutch # 51 today............from breeding
a "Lesser Platty" male to a normal
looking "Platty Sib" female...........5
eggs!!........I did this same type of breeding
three times this year..........what a long
day.............Happy Father's Day to all
you Daddies out there!!!.................Rock
On!!!............
|
| |
| Saturday_June_14 |
| |
Last
night I got the journal updated as you can
see..............and I got the Birthing
Records page done to............:)...........Brooke
and I had a fishing trip planned for yesterday
afternoon............but we got rained out
as usual...........it has been raining every
aftern oon
here for the past month??...............our
reservoirs are the fullest they have ever
been in 10 years or more...............the
last few years have been drought conditions............this
year they are encouraging people to use water.........it's
crazy............but it sure is "green"
around here................my yard has never
looked so good.....:)..............Robbie
and Billy finished cleaning the rat room yesterday
evening ..............Theresa's sister Jenny
had the kids last night......;)................so
we went out and had dinner "alone"...............it
was the first dinner that T and I have had
by ourselves in a very long time. .............I
can't even remember the last time??..............it
felt weird??...............we are so used
to Brooke and Kyle being around...............after
dinner we came home and she started her paper
work and I pulled eggs from the Granite Albino
female................yepper.........I got
clutch # 48 last night............5 eggs and
one slug from breeding the new " Granite
Albino" to an African hatched Granite
male........I did this so that she would have
a pure " fresh" bloodline................I
was very happy to get eggs from her this season..........we
have not had her very long.........;)............if
this turns out to be genetic............it
will be a brand new line
of Albino ball python..............and a "new
mutation"...........just like the Lavender
Albinos............our female is so pretty...........:)...............Now
for today ( Saturday )............Phil and
I met this morning and went up to the rat
barn............we had a ton of trash to take
to the dump..............then we went and
bought a bunch of 5 gallon buckets for the
rodent racks.............we have some people
coming in from Virginia this week-end to pick
up 5 rodent racks..............so we went
back to the barn and finished up the racks.............we
had to plumb two rat breeder racks and drill
all the buckets so that a valve can be put
onto each one..............each bucket sits
on top of the rodent rack............the bucket
has a valve on it with a fitting............the
hose slides onto the fitting and that supplies
the rack with water ( gravity )...........the
bucket valve has a lever on it so that you
can turn t he
water on and off...........so we got all of
that done.........about that time, the guy
that makes my rodent tubs for me showed up
with the rest of the tubs that we needed to
complete the order..............his name is
Bill..........this guy can make anything out
of plastic............he is amazing...........he
brought his grandson with him.............I
showed them around the rat room............then
they asked if they could see the snakes.................Bill's
grandson got a ball python from me last year.......Bill
actually asked me to ship it to his grandson
as a Christmas gift............ever since
he got the new baby ball, he has been "hooked"................so
I told  them
I had baby balls hatching and that they could
come see.........;)...................so we
went to my place and I showed them around..............they
were amazed!!..........I showed them around
a bit...........then Bill and I discussed
my new hide box design ..............I'm having
Bill make the molds for mini, small and large
hide boxes for ball pythons.................I
will actually be selling them in the near
future................they are very similar
to the hide boxes that BUSH used to sell............BUSH
is not making anything to do with reptiles
anymore..............and I need hide boxes................so
I figured I would start making them myself...............I
can't wait to get my first order....... .......they
look awesome!!................so I got things
straightened out with Bill............and
I gave his grandson a new RDR "Albino
Midas" T-shirt...............he was so
excited to see the place, and to see babies
hatching..............and then to get a cool
T-shirt.........I was glad...........:)..............so
after Bill left..............Phil and I called
Fat Ass and we all met up at the rat barn
( again )..............all Phil and I had
to do is clean up our tools and we were done................Fatty
had been working around his house..................now
it was time to go fishing at Mr. John's pond....:)..............naturally
as soon as we got over the hill to the pond..............it
started raining.............but it was hot
out and we didn't mind..............we kicked
total  ass!!..................we
each caught at least 12 large mouth bass each.............and
they were all in the 14" to 18"
range..............it was awesome!!..............as
soon as the rain started.............the Bass
kicked into over-drive!!........we were fishing
with purple rubber worms..............on the
bottom...............and we were destroying
them...............we threw all of them back............:)..............we
fished for hours................I had a blast
and I know Fatty and Phil did too...................it
was the most Bass I have ever caught ( at
that size )
in one day................I'm hooked now!!..........I'm
back into fishing mode for sure!!..........I
even caught a little snapping turtle................he
was about the size of a softball.............he
was poking his head up in the weeds at the
end of the pond where I was fishing ..............I
couldn't resist..........so naturally I jumped
in the pond and grabbed him...............I
checked him out and let him go...............I
just wanted to be able to say I caught a turtle
too........LOL..................it was damn
hot after the rain stopped and the sun came
out again................so I jumped in the
pond and cooled off.................Fatty
a nd
Phil didn't...............but I was hot!!.................and
it felt good!......;)...........after a long
day of fishing we packed it up and went home..................we
were all going to get showered and go out
to the Sushi bar..................after that
we were going to The Colonial to sing Karaoke................some
of us anyway??.................we'll see who
sings??................It will be T and I............Fatty
and Sandy................and Phil and Robbin..................it
should be a good time..............I wish
Rene lived closer...............:(................I
got ball python clutches # 49 and # 50 today............clutch
# 49 was from breeding an Albino male to a
het Albino female..............6 eggs.................clutch
# 50 was from breeding a het Piebald male
to a 50% possible het Piebald female.............5
eggs.............can you feel the love??........... |
| |
| Friday_June_13 |
| |
Robot
and Thorton are up at the rat barn cleaning.............they
get a ton of work done together!.........I'm
getting payroll done and finishing all my
paper-work............today was Brooke's last
day of school!!.............she just got home..............guess
what?..............she wants to go fishing
again .............Imagine that?..............LOL.............I
think that we will be getting together with
Fatty and his kiddies later on today to go
to the pond.... .........it
is 1:20 pm right now.............I have a
few more hours of work and I'm done for the
week..............Phil and I will be working
on rodent racks again tomorrow............we
have to plumb two rat breeder racks.............the
people from Virginia who bought the 11 racks
will be coming over to pick them up some time
late in the day tomorrow.............so we
have to get a couple plumbed and we will have
half of the order completed..............:)............We
will probably go fishing when we are done......;)...............47
clutches of ball python eggs out so far.............19
more to go!!...............I'm gonna get the
pics put in the journal and call it a week.............have
a great weekend everyone!!.............. |
| |
| Thursday_June_12 |
| |
Today
is Billy's first day working with the snakes.............Robbie
finally has a helper!............today they
both cleaned the adult balls and boas............Robbie
i s
so stoked because he is on "the payroll"
now...........his little bro Billy is a good
kid............he has been coming up and helping
Robbie clean the rat room...........so I asked
him if he wanted to do more work?..........he
said he would love to work with the snakes
too..............so now I have Robbie the
Robot............and Billy.............I call
Billy "Thorton".............LOL..............."Robot"
and "Thorton"..............I have
nick names for all my freinds......:).....Jody
is back at my place again putting in more
outside lighting and ceiling fans on my co vered
deck..........it will make it nice when we
are eating crabs out on the deck to have the
fans blowing down on us...........it gets
brutal hot here in July and August..............I
got ball python clutches # 46 and # 47 today...........#
46 was from breeding a Striped male to an
Albino female.......3 eggs............all
the babies will be Double Het for Striped
Albino.............this is my second season
producing these double hets.............and
my third clutch of them.............clutch
# 47 was from breeding an Albino male to a
het Albino female.........7 eggs........... ..this
is my "lucky number" clutch......47.............so
I expect all 7 eggs to hatch Albinos.........LOL..............:P..........Brooke
got home from school today and wanted to go
fishing down at Mr. John's pond again..............so
I took her down for a couple hours............I
stopped by the store and bought her a new
fishing rod..........she did very well with
it............I was surprised...............she
did better her first time casting then I did
when I was her age.............we tore em'
up.............she was catching huge Blue
Gills and I was catching Bass
on a rubber worm................she was even
putting her own bait on the hook ( corn )
..........but I had to take the fish off of
the hook for her........:)..........there
are some big Bass in this pond............I
can't wait until Fatty and I can spend a day
there "alone" and fish for Bass.................Fatty
has got me back into the "fishing groove"
again............we used to fish all the time.............then
we just stopped.................the kids must
have got us jump started back into it again...............I'm
glad!!...............so Brooke and I fished
until a huge thunder storm came through.............it
was lightning pretty bad............so we
pac ked
it up and went home..............I called
Pete on the Nextel to see if he found his
wedding band?............he said he went up
the next morning and looked for the ring for
an hour and a half.............no luck..............so
his wife Amy went up later and looked for
it for 45 mins................she did find
it!!..............:)...............I'm sure
he will be getting it sized correctly now..............nice
job Amy.............I swear he did it on porpose.......LOL...............Theresa
and I have been watching The Godfather collection
on DVD..............I can not believe I have
never seen any of the "Godfathers"...............I
j ust
was never interested?.............I absolutely
love them!............we have seen all of
part one and half of part two.............I
can't believe that Al Pacino could have ever
looked so good?...............LOL..............my
wife says he really looked cute when he was
young...........it's time to refinance again
people..............30 years fixed at 4.75...............holy
cow!!................I refinanced a few months
ago thinking I was doing great.............and
now the rates are even lower............unreal!!.............anywho.............I
know this week has been rather boring...............but
I'm having fun.............:) |
| |
| Wednesday_June_11 |
| |
Robot
is up at the rat barn watering all the buckets
and "dressing up" some of the food
hoppers..............then he will bring all
the rats for us to feed the adult ball pythons
and boas.........We fed together today.............I
did the feeding and Robot marked the feeding
card ( it goes fast that way )...........after
we were done all the feeding and "doubling
up" Robbie started cleaning cages and
I worked in the office..........this week
has been pretty BLAH..................I pretty
much have stayed on top of all my work..........My
kids were at Mom's today.........so I called
down there and asked Brooke if she wanted
to go turtle hunting?.............her and
Kyle had just got out of Nana's pool ( my
mom is Nana )...............so now they were
in the hot tub...............what a life!!................so
I told her I was done in the office ( not
really ...........I just wanted to get out
)......did she want to go looking for baby
water turtles?...............she said yes................sure
she did..............she loves looking for
herps just like her pop................so
I made sure Robot was cool "holding down
the fort" and I went to pick up the kiddies................we
stopped by the store and got some cold drinks
and some ice for the cooler..............then
we went to one of my favorite swamps to look
for baby turtles ................there are
train tracks right next to the swamp.............it
makes it nice for walking along the edge and
scanning the shallow water for baby turtles..............I
had "Gump" up on my shoulders................LOL..............he
wanted to find a "Big Snapper" he
said...............he didn't want a baby turtle..........he
wanted a big snapper like the one that Fat
Ass brought back to my place a few days ago.............Kyle
still wants to know why I let it  go??..................LOL.................well..............we
were not there for 5 mins. when Brooke spotted
a tiny little Eastern Painted turtle.............this
girl has " the gift"..........if
there is one thing in the world I could do
everyday............it would be look for baby
water turtles...............I have been doing
this since I was eight or nine years old............I
have looked for all kinds of herps..............but
turtles are my favorite.............no doubt..........so
she spotted the little baby..............she
slid down the rocks on the train tracks and
went straight to where the baby turtle was
hiding.............it was in very shallow
crystal clear water..........it did see us...........so
it went under some green slime to hide from
us.............but Brooke found it............she
was so happy!!.............I have to say that
when I was younger doing all of this stuff..............I
would have killed to have my parents doing
it with me.............they did encourage
me to love animals.............but they were
not psycho herp hunters like me......:).......I
just lived for it!!..............and now that
my kids are interested in it..............I'm
gonna live it all again through their experiences................it's
awesome!!..............like a big circle ...............where
does the time go??.................and when
do men grow up??.................do we ever
grow up??...............I still feel like
a big goof........so after we caught this
little bugger................we walked around
and looked for some more..............we seen
a bunch of tadpoles and frogs.......some adult
Painted turtles.............no Snappers for
Kyle.............we seen all we could see.............SO..............we
went home and got all of our fishing gear................we
would spend the rest of the day down at Mr.
John's pond. His pond is loaded with Blue
Gill and Bass .................perfect for
the kids!!............I called Fatty and told
him that I was going to be taking Brooke and
Kyle fishing................so he grabbed
his kiddies and met us down there..............Fatty
and I...............and 4 kids!!..............the
kids were catching fish like mad.................all
Fatty and I did was put bait on the hooks...............it
was hot and humid..............I was sweating
like a pig!!............all the kids were
having a blast!!..........Fatty and I did
get a chance here and there to cast out rubber
worms for Bass................we each caught
a few nice ones..............Mr. John came
down and watched us while we were all goofing
off...................and then it happened
.................Ralph got a great idea about
moving around the pond to a different spot.................this
pond is a couple acres...............so we
got everything packed back up and loaded into
the back of my dually .................I proceeded
around the pond only to find a nice soft wet
area ( we have had rain forever around here,
the ground is soft ).................where
I sunk up to the axles and was STUCK!!..................LOL..................Mr.
john was laughing at me............he went
up to the barn and got his big farm tractor
and chains.................he came back down
and pulled me out of the mud................what
a boner!!...............I'm always getting
my truck stuck.............I love dually trucks...............but
they are not worth a crap as four wheel drives.............they
just look so "beefy"..................so
I got the truck out and humbly went back to
where we were fishing earlier.... ................we
all had a great time................it makes
me feel good to spend quality time with the
kids when I can...............especially good
times where you know they will remember it
and it will leave an impression on them..................if
your like me..............you have only a
few things in your mind that stand out from
your child hood.............a very few things
that left an impression on you..............and
my fishing trips with my Uncle Joey are definitely
burned in my brain forever..................I'm
sure Kyle and Brooke will remember too...............towards
the end of the day Phil and Mike Jolliff came
down to the pond...............Phil was pulling
rats for his deliveries tomorrow and he was
also pulling a bunch of stuff for Jolliff..................so
they stopped by the pond to watch us...............after
we were all done I took the kids home...............they
needed to get a bath and be checked for ticks................Theresa
showed up as we were getting home...............Phil,
Jolliff and I went up to the rat barn and
filled all the rat orders................Robbie
even came up..................he's the "gas
man".................he gases the rats
when we need to freeze them............we
were there a couple hours filling orders................we
were practically cleaned out of small rats
by the time we were done..................then
we went back to my place so that Jolliff could
see my new "Patternless" and "Lilly"..................he
loved them both...............I'm sure he
will be setting up a time with me so that
he can shoot professional photographs of them...........;).............after
Phil and Jolliff left..............I got a
wild hair up my butt to clean all my turtle
tanks...............it was only midnight.........LOL...................and
after that I pulled all the rats from the
cages where the snakes didn't eat..................I
made it to bed before 3 am...........;).................what
a day!!............. |
| |
| Tuesday_June_10 |
| |
Robot
is up at the rat barn cleaning the rat holder
bins..............Jody ( The Electrician )
is back here working..........I have him installing
more light timers for my " night time
breeding cycle "...............Robbie
will be feeding all the babies and the yearlings
today..............I have to go to Frank Memmo's
place ( My Web Master ).................LOL................I
sound like Luke Skywalker...............anyway,
Frank has a pair of huge het Ghosts here at
my place on breeding loan............they
did nothing this season?.............bred
like crazy.............not a single egg?.............I
think his male is too fat.........Frank's
male het Ghost is as big as any of my breeder
females...............and that ain't a good
thing in my book...............I like a male
to be lean and mean..............so I'm taking
them back to him today so that they can eat
him out of house and home...............I
did tell him to put the male on a damn diet............this
male would not need a meal until this time
next year..........Frank has a really cool
set-up for his herps.............he had two
really neat looking cages for his Frilled
Dragons..........he had three female Dragons
gravid............you could see that they
were digging in a laying box............it
reminded me of way back in the day when I
used to breed Bearded Dragons and Geckos............you
can have it!!!.............I don't do bugs
anymore..........;)...........Then he had
a beautiful reverse trio of Boelen's pythons...........he
has not had much luck with them producing
fertile eggs..............but he does have
one captive born baby to show for it..............after
hanging out with Frank..............I headed
over to Pete Kahl's. .............Frank
and Pete both live in the same area............about
an hour from my place.............I had 200
medium female rats for Pete..............he
bought some more rat racks and needed to fill
them up with my top quality rats!!,,,,,,,,,,,,;)..................so
I met with Pete..........gave him his rats...........we
looked at some of the baby boas he was producing..............Hypo
Jungles and Jungles het for Albino..................things
were looking pretty good over at Pete's place...............after
that, we went and had dinner at a restaurant
close to were Pete lives..............I gave
him the "low down" on all the "butt
heads" in the biz...........Pete likes
to stay out of the politics.............but
he does like to know what's going on when
we get together .................nobody is
safe from Ralph's gossip column!!.................LMAO...............so
we ate and talked about stuff for a couple
hours...................Pete just bought 120
acres with a pond and a river on the property.............this
is his the place where he will build his dream
house and settle in for good..............120
acres!!...............unreal!..............but
that's Pete..............Pete thinks big!!...............always
has.............that's what I like about him.............he
reminds me of me........;)..............Two
of the biggest contenders in the business
are right here in Maryland!!........yeah baby!!..............:P...........after
dinner we went back to his place and loaded
my truck up with twenty bags of shredded cypress
mulch............the mulch bags were wet...........Pete's
hands got wet, so he started slinging the
water off of them.............Oh NO!!.............his
brand new wedding band flew right off of his
finger........LMAO!!.............yepper..................Pete
is married now.............but his ring is
one of those "easy to take off"
rings......LOL.................we looked for
it for 20 mins or so..............no luck!!..............he
said he would go back up in the morning and
look for it..............it was midnight anyway...............dark
as could be where Pete lives..............he
did say that he has lost the ring several
times since he had it...............LOL................Pete..........go
get your ring sized bro.............I had
fun!! |
| |
| Monday_June_9 |
| |
I
got ball python clutch # 45 this morning.............from
breeding an Albino male to a 50% poss het
Albino female..............8 eggs........I
have bred this female one year before to a
het Albino male.............no Albinos were
produced .............maybe this year and
7 eggs will show me some Albinos?......;)..............I
got all my phone calls done early............then
I did an hour or so of paper work and organizing............My
Sea Doo DI is done!!.............it was just
the spark plugs................My Uncle Joey
was off of work today ( He drives an 18 wheeler
)...........and he lives down by the Chesapeake
bay..........there is a boat ramp near his
place to  access
the Bay............so I called him up and
asked him if he wanted to meet me at Cycle
World.........I told him that I had to load
the DI up on the trailer...........and that
I wanted to take it out for a test run..........he
said sure.............so we met down there..........loaded
up the DI..........."bought some spare
spark plugs".............then we headed
to the boat ramp..............what an awesome
day we had!!.............The DI ran perfect!!.............we
each had a boat ...............naturally Joey
wanted to ride the Super Charged boat the
most..............we went sight seeing for
awhile through out the bay.............then
we went found a bunch of cool tributaries
to ride upstream in.............it was like
the movie "Gator" with Burt Reynolds..............we
were haulin' ass up these cool little rivers
that dump into the bay.............we had
a total blast!!...............we started getting
hungry so we pulled into
a seafood restaurant right on the water..............Joey
said that they have killer crab cakes..............so
we pulled up and docked..............I did
not bring my money.............but Joey did..............he
had it stored on the boat I was driving...........it
was in a little water tight container...........I
opened the front hatch and grabbed the container.............and
the lid was unlatched??..................and
out fell Joey's car keys into the bay!!!...............yepper.............so
I hopped over the side of the boat thinking
it would not be that deep at the dock..............it
was over my head!!...............I dove down
a few times to see if I could feel the keys
on the bottom..............no luck!!...........I
tried to open my eyes under the water............it
was like looking through chocolate milk..............it
wasn't happeneing.............the whole time
I'm fishing for the car keys..............the
people in the restaurant are looking out at
us ..............probably thinking that we
were the biggest boners they had seen in awhile.........LOL................so
I gave up..............we went into the restaurant..........one
of the guys that cooks said that people do
it all of the time..............he gave me
a steel rake and said that I would be able
to retrieve them that way................so
I took the rake and went to give it a whirl................it
took me ten tries or so............ ...but
I did hook the keys on one of the rake teeth............so
that was good........LOL............after
that, we went in and ate a crab cake platter.............then
we headed back out to the tributaries to run
the boats out of gas!!!................and
that's what we did..................both boats
came home "on empty"...................they
both ran like scolded dogs!!................the
Super Charged boat did around 65 mph................the
DI did 55 or so...............we loaded up
the boats and headed back home...............I
pulled into a self serve car wash to was all
the salt water off of the boats..............salt
water is bad on a boat............then I went
to Mr. Johns and flushed out the cooling system
in the DI.............the DI uses the water
in the lake or what ever your in, to cool
itself................so you always want to
flush it out when you are riding in salt water...............the
SC has a closed cooling system...................:).............these
things are so addictive .............I recommend
them to anybody who likes dinking around in
the water................. |
| |
| Sunday_June_8 |
| |
No
"Big Rock" today!............I'm
pissed!!..........we got players out of town...........players
to hung over to play...........and players
that say it is too wet!!............man I
was ready to play today!!............Kyle
has been asking for his own fish tank ever
since I set up the one for Brooke............so
the kiddies and I went to the Fish shop today
and picked out Kyle a really cool little fish
set up........we got all the goodies ..............gravel,
logs and plants..............then we went
over to the "fish section " and
picked out some fish for the both of them...........we
came home and set up Kyle new tank...........we
added a few things to Brooke's  tank.............then
we released the fish.............we got 2.6
golden swords and 4 baby clown loaches............Theresa
cooked lasagna today!!.............yepper................we
eat at home "maybe" a dozen times
a year.............and today was one of them!!............Theresa
is an awesome cook.............she just is
never home to do it.........she works nights.........always
has............and she says "I ain't
changing my schedule to cook"................LOL...........I
don't blame her............I have to say that
when I get a chance to get a home cooked meal.............I'm
all over it ........whether it is Theresa,
her mom.......or my mom............Home cookin'
rules!!............that's why I'm so damn
fat..............I don't eat right!!..............It's
all Theresa's fault...........:P..........yep...........I
eat terribly .............I eat once a day...........and
it is usually at ten in the evening ..............I
do not feel hungry at all during the day..........it's
my work schedule...............ever since
the snakes have started to take up more and
more time..............and dealing with people
over the internet............my entire schedule
has changed ..........I go to bed very late.............and
sleep later than I used to now............I
work more.........just way different hours..............I
work the "night shift".................:)............anyway.............Theresa's
lasagna ruled!!...........Robbie worked some
today............he had to gas a bunch of
rats for a customer who needed them frozen...........he
even did a few deliveries today.............Robbie
is a damn good kid!!.............all he really
had to do today was take 15 mins. to check
on the rat room.........:) |
| |
| Friday_June_6 |
| |
Today
Robbie and Billy are up at the barn cleaning............they
will have a short day............they worked
together last night and got a lot done............I'm
finishing all of my paper work and getting
the journal ready for the web............Fat
Ass is up at the barn to..........he is building
his first "solo" mouse rack.............and
Kyle had  his
cast removed!!............all systems are
a go for him right now!!.............and it
was just in time............he is going to
be a "Ring Bearer" in a wedding
tomorrow..............all dressed up in a
"Little Gump Tux"..........I'll
get pics.............this will be hilarious!!...............Theresa
and I are going to the wedding tomorrow.............it
is Nicole's wedding...........Nicole works
for Theresa at the hair salon............it
was Nicole's stinking Bachelorette party that
they all went to last Saturday night!!..............yeah
I'm still being a big baby about it..................what
can I say..........it's in an Italian's nature
to be jealous..........:P...........These
turtles are making me crazy now...........Robbie
found one yesetrday..........and so did Fat
Ass............today Theresa found one in
the road and brought it home..............she
found an Eastern P ainted
turtle..............so now I have three turtles
to take to the swamp...............I'll do
it tomorrow morning before Phil and I go up
to the rat barn to build rat racks..................yepper..............more
racks to build tomorrow ..............maybe
I will not shower afterwards and just put
on some clean cloths for the wedding??.................that
will teach them.........lmao!!.............man........that
would be so funny, because anyone who spends
a little time in the rat barn smells awful
for the rest of the day...............I'll
have the whole table to myself.............then
I'll start dancing and breaking a sweat..............the
whole place will clear out........LMAO!!...................I
got ball python clutch # 43 today.............I
have not taken the eggs from the fem ale
yet.........it was from breeding an Albino
male that is poss het for Snow "Jolliff
" to a het Axanthic female "VPI"...............crazy
huh??.............It's 5:50 pm right now.............I'm
almost done writing the journal............I
ain't doing to bad considering all the phone
calls I answered today.............and I have
the office line un-plugged!!.............you
guys are nailing me on the cell phone today.......;).............I
spent an hour on the phone with a "mate"
from London..........boy do those guys over
in the UK spend the big bucks!!..............so
this week was rather hectic............Fatty
and I got a lot done...........but I fell
behind on writing and doing office stuff..............it's
all done now!!............I'm good to go for
the weekend.............I have three turtles
to release at the swamp.............two rat
racks to build......... .....a
wedding to stink up.............and volley
ball!!.......not sure when I will go down
and pick up the Sea Doo yet??..........43
ball python clutches on the ground so far..................five
clutches have hatched as of today...............I
did hatch another clutch sired by my "Black
Head" male..............4 eggs.............and
three baby "Black Heads" hatched...............so
these is definitely a new co-dom mutation
............I can't imagine what the "Supers"
would look like..........if there are Supers?.............they
will have to be black as black can be I would
think.............so I'm very excited to have
produced these awesome little guys for the
second year................this is my only
clutch of them this season too.............I
also have some very pretty Past els
hatching out............pretty soon I will
have a clutch or two hatching each week............and
don't forget the boas I just produced................mom
turned out to be het for SNOW!!..............yeah
baby!!!...........Robbie and Billy just called..........they
are all done the rat room..............Fatty
just showed up and told me that he built a
complete eight level mouse rack..........AND......he
plumbed it...........that's awesome!!!.............so
all I have to do is put a few pics in for
you guys and I'm done!!..............I'm out...................everyone
have a great week-end................I know
I will!! |
| |
| Thursday_June_5 |
| |
Yep............Fatty
is still here.......LOL ...............He
is working here in the facility all day today............."
it all pays the same"............LOL.........I
love saying that line...........Robbie is
cleaning the rest of the snake cages today
while Fatty is wiring up the rest of the racks
with those new killer power strips from Lindy..............I'm
working in the office all day............I'm
so far behind on all my office work it ain't
funny..............working all week really
screwed up my schedule......;)..............but
I got to spend some quality time with Fat
Ass.........LMAO!!............Fatty even cleaned
out a bunch of adult ball python boxes that
needed to be dumped out and disinfected for
new snakes to go in................he does
it all!!...........I moved a bunch of snakes
into the new racks I just bought.............so
that left me with 30 or so boxes that need
to have the mulch dumped out and the boxes
cleaned.............all the used mulch gets
dumped into my Pot Belly Pig's pen............it
works out really nice.............they love
sniffin' around in it to...........so I got
the boys pluggin' away in the snake room and
I'm getting all my construction and reptile
paper work done.................so much work...........so
little time to do it.............and then
the phone rings...... ...LOL................talking
on the phone is probably 50% of the snake
biz...............Big Lou is home safely from
China...............he has a ten day quarantine
period while he is home..............then
he is good to go..............he said he loved
China and Xulin and her family..............he
says he will be bringing her to the US in
nine months or less??...............all I
can say is he is acting as happy as a hog
in shit right now.............not a care in
the world...............Xulin this and Xulin
that.............this boy is in love big time...............I
love it!!.............He has a million stories
to tell me when we get together...........a
bunch of video and pics...........so I will
try to get it all in the journal as he tells
it to me................Lou's stories are
second to none........that's for sure.............his
quarantine will be over on the 16th............so
I will see him then..............I finally
broke down and had my windows washed inside
and out on my house today............Duddy
is the dude that cleans all my carpets..............he
also does windows........:)..............he
pressure washed my house a month ago.......so
today he came back and did the windows...............fifty
of them in all!!!...........inside and out!!..............he
can have that job!!..............but that's
what he does............he's a cleaner..............he
used a squeegie.......they look great.................it's
been four years!!.............LOL.................The
Sea Doo guy called me today and said that
my DI is ready to be picked up................after
all this crap............it was two simple
spark plugs that needed to be replaced..............yepper...............I'm
a Boner for sure...............the trouble
shooting manual even says to check the spark
plugs..............I just figured that they
were fine because the boat was less than a
year old...............but he said that when
you run two strokes slowly.............like
in a "no wake" zone for long periods
of time............the spark plugs will foul
out quicker................and we do have
a lot of slow no wake zones where we ride...............so
now I know to keep a few spare spark plugs
with me while we're riding............no sweat... ...........and
NO CHARGE..............gotta love that..............I
have had the boat in the shop twice...........and
no charge..............they probably feel
sorry for me because I'm a Bone- Head........;)................Now
for the turtle stories of the day..............after
Robbie got finished cleaning the snakes he
headed back home to pick up his little brother
Billy.............then they were going up
to the rat barn to start cleaning.............well
on the way up to the barn they found a little
snapping turtle crossing the road..............he
stopped and picked it up and brought it to
my house so that I could let it go in a really
nice swamp I know about.............it was
a real cutie............about 5 inches long............so
he dropped it off and headed back up the road................then
Fat Ass left my house and started heading
down the hill..............and he finds a
big female snapper crossing the road...............so
he gets her and brings her to my place................so
I have two snappers in the sink right now........LOL................all
my friends know how I feel about turtles.............especially
turtles in the road................I'll stop
traffic every time I see one in the road .............which
reminds me "again" to tell you all
the story of the trash truck driver who ran
over a box turtle in the road that I was in
the process of picking up...............lets
just say he got his ass kicked good that day........:)............ |
| |
| Wednesday_June_4 |
| |
Robbie
got here this morning and started cleaning
cages............He brought me all the rats
for me to feed the adults..........so I fed
all the adults before Fatty and I headed out
to work...........we went up to the rat barn
and built another mouse rack................we
built it "and" plumbed it in three
hours!!...........Holy cow!!.........I have
that big rack order to fill.. .........so
I figured I would use Fatty's carpentry skills
to my advantage ................I have to
have half of the order done by next week-end............I
wanted to build one with Fatty so he could
see exactly how it all goes together...........that
way when we are slow ( which is rare ) he
can spend a day building racks if I need him
to , and if we have the orders to fill................I
used to do the same thing at my Pet Shop "
The Green Iguana "............we had
a little wood shop in the back where we would
build custom reptile enclosures................and
Fatty would work in the shop building cages
when we were slow in the construction company...............we
just took the orders and got them done when
we could............so this is the same thing.............."carpentry
work that is reptile related ".........;)..............it's
perfect!! ...............My landscapers finished
up mulching and planting more trees today.............we
have had so much rain, they have not been
able to get started or even finish.............but
today they did...........it looks awesome!!............I
usually do the mulching and tree planting
myself...........but I'm just to busy with
everything else going on these days.............and
it needed to be done...........Guess what?..................my
Anery Boa 66% poss  het
for Snow had her litter today!!..............and
yepper.................she is het for SNOW!!...............she
produced a dozen or so Anery's that are poss
het for Snow ( Albino )...............a bunch
of 100% het Anerys that are poss het for Snow
( Albino )................one Albino ( male
) that is het for Snow ( Anery )................and
a SNOW male!!!...............I knew she was
het for Snow............I just knew it!!...............so
I'm very happy!!...............her litter
was text book ............almost to the day
she was supposed to have her babies..............only
three slugs...............I have not counted
all the snakes yet..............but I do know
that there is one Albino and one Snow..............both
boys!!................Phil came over later
in the day and helped me get the baby boas
away from mom and get the cage cleaned out..............then
we went up to the rat barn and packed all
of his orders for tomorrow's delivery................Man
I was happy to see that Albino and Snow today............:)............. |
| |
| Tuesday_June_3 |
| |
Fatty
came over in the am...........we have a bunch
of stuff to do today........Robbie is up at
the rat barn cleaning the holder bins...........then
he will be coming here to feed the babies
and yearlings............Fatty and I went
to the store and picked up a few buckets to
put on the mice racks that we have built but
not plumbed yet...............then we went
up to the rat barn and plumbed three mouse
racks..........Fatty did a great job.......this
was his first time working with the rodent
racks............I had him cutting all the
hose to make the "sipper T's " and
I was running all the plumbing on the racks...............we
knocked them out pretty quick. .........we
just completed an order for three mouse racks.............and
started an order for 6 mouse racks and 5 rat
breeder racks...............so we have a bunch
of work ahead of us.....;)..........after
that we came back and Fatty wired up a few
more power strips on the snake racks...........and
he put more shelving supports on the shelves
in my incubator room..............yepper.............I
have eggs stacked to the ceiling......LOL...............we
don't need any shelves pulling off the wall!!.........NERD
sent me some pics awhile back when he first
produced the Hypo/ Ghost Spider ball..............and
I have been bugging him to let me post them
on my journal............he said to wait till
they shed...........:)..........He posted
some pics on Kingsnake.............so now
it's safe!!................So now we have
a new addition to the Spider family.. ...........the
Hypo Spider..............what a beauty!!.............I
think the sides of the snake are going to
be the best Spider sides we have seen yet.............that
Orange Ghost really complimented the whole
look of the Spider............looks like those
"under-rated" Ghosts can do some
killer stuff when bred into other mutations
huh?.................just look at the Caramel
Glow..........The Ghost and the Axanthic are
way under-rated in my opinion............they
can change the way a snake looks so drastically
............I see the stock in Ghost/ Hypos
going up this year for sure...........long
live the high prices that these snakes deserve!!!..............I
was emailed by several people asking me how
you make a Hypo Spider.............well it
is real simple..............when you bre ed
a Spider to a Ghost..............every baby
will come out " Het for Ghost".......now
the Spider on average will produce a clutch
of half normal looking and half Spider ..............remember............EVERY
baby is het for Ghost because one of the parents
was a homozygous Ghost.............so that
means that the Spiders are het for Ghost too...........and
the normal looking Offspring are het for Ghost..............so
now you have your Spider that is also het
for Ghost...............you can produce a
"Ghost Spider" by breeding the Spider
het for Ghost to a Ghost or a Het Ghost...............Spider
Het For Ghost x Ghost............lets do 4
eggs.............all babies will be at least
het for Ghost...........in 4 eggs..........you
should get 2 Spiders because Spiders will
be produced in average in 50% of the clutch
and 2 normal looking snakes.............you
should get two Ghosts because in avearge..............Homo
( Ghost ) x Het will produce in average 50%
of the clutch being homo ( Ghost )..........so
this is a beautiful thing..........now as
far as the odds go.......who knows?............the
main thing is that you need to be lucky enough
to have the Spider and the Ghost trait "hit"
at the same time on your snake..............odds
are pretty good............you already know
that in 4 eggs.............two babies should
be a Spider.............and two babies should
be a Ghost...........so all that has to happen
is for the two genes to hit at the same time
on a snake............I'm not getting into
all the punnett square crap.......no need..............all
you need to know is that you can definitely
"hit" on one snake in 4 in this
type of breeding.............hell............they
all could be Ghost Spiders..............it's
luck!!!...............yes.............they
all could be Ghost Spiders............Homo
X Het can produce all Homo................and
Spider to normal can produce all  Spiders............this
is way lucky..............but it can happen...............I
myself have bred homo x het and produced all
homo..............now for the really good
news............you can also produce a Ghost
Spider from breeding a Spider het for Ghost
to a Het Ghost..............that's right...............you
should get two Spiders in four eggs.................but
now your going het to het with the Ghost gene...................so
that should produce you one Ghost in four..............well
that one Ghost can "hit" on a Spider...................yepper............ain't
it fun!!...............co-dom genes make results
come much quicker!!...............that's why
they suck.........LMAO!!...................Congrats
NERD................what a nice addition to
the "Spider Family".......... I
got ball python clutch # 42 today......from
breeding a "Lesser Platty" male
to a Mojave / Phantom" female..............this
is my second clutch from this type of breeding.............the
first clutch was from a "Lesser Platty"
male to my "original" Mojave / Phantom
female..............and this will be the second
clutch.............the Mojave / Phantom in
this breeding is the daughter of the "original"
mom.............so who knows what will happen
in these breedings...............I'm hoping
to produce "Lessers", "Phantoms"
and a cross of the two................yeah
baby!! . |
| |
| Monday_June_2 |
| |
We
don't have any construction work this week.........this
is probably the first "dry spell"
we have had in several years.............so
I have Fat Ass with me all week doing snake
stuff.....:)........." It all pays the
same "..........I told him to come over
to my place around 9 am or so.............so
he got up early ( regular construction time
) and went fishing before he came over..........I'd
say his is definitely back in full "fishing
mode" now.............I got most of my
weekend emails answered before he showed up.........I
have a bunch of "side work" that
needs to be looked at and priced out...........so
he and I went to one of the jobs and measured
it all up............when "regular"
people call me and need some custom trim work
done or small carpentry jobs at their homes...........I
tell them that we are always busy............but
that I will put them on a list and call them
when we have some free time.............so
today we went and looked at the first job
on the list.............people are willing
to wait for good carpentry work..............:)..........Robbie
is full time now...........so today is the
first Monday he has worked for me.............he
is going to be doing all of my Monday rodent
deliveries.....;)...........after Fatty and
I met with the customer, we went to the T-shirt
shop and ordered the all new RDR T-shirts
with an Albino Midas!!..............I have
been playing around with a bunch of different
"morphs of Midas".............and
the Albino is the first one to go to press..........these
shirts will be way cool!!...........after
that we headed up to Mr. John's farm...........I
had a bunch of Freedom Breeder racks delivered
to the farm last week.............we are storing
them at the farm for now..............I'm
just going up and getting them as I need them..............so
today we went up and loaded two of the medium
and one of the small snake racks to set up
at my facility............Mr John has a fork
lift..........so it was a snap!!...........Robbie
was done all his deliveries by the time we
needed him to help out with setting up the
racks.............so we brought the racks
to my place and got them all set up. Lindy
is selling some killer new power strips for
the racks...............they are 4 foot long............they
have 16 receptacles in them, with a fuse and
a little red light that shows that the power
is on.............they are very professional
looking and make a very clean job out of running
16 heat panel cords to the Helix..............I'm
totally impressed with them.......;)...........I
bought enough power strips to do the 5 new
racks I just bought and to do the rest of
the racks I already have................NO
MORE EXTENSION CORDS AND THREE-WAYS..........;)........I
love it!!........we ended up getting the three
new racks set up and wired to the Helix............then
we switched over five of my existing racks
to the new power strips...........we got a
lot done today............after all the work
was done...............T and the kids came
down to the snake room and we played "Old
Maid" on the floor.............LOL...............I
love that game..............we played tw o
games..............Brooke lost both times....;)..............I
was dealt the Old Maid both hands...............but
I was able to get rid of her to Theresa both
times .................Brooke ended up with
the Old Maid..............but she "looks"
at it when it gets down to two cards............so
it's easy to see which one "not to pick"................she
hasn't figured that one out yet........LOL...........but
she will..........:).............after the
games............Brooke, Kyle and I set up
an "african clawed frog tank" in
Brooke's bedroom................she was out
over the weekend with her Aunt and Uncle............they
have a fish tank and were at a store buying
new fish...........well Brooke seen these
little baby african clawed frogs............and
she had to have them..............so they
bought her three of them to bring home.................so
I set them up in a ten gallon tank with a
filter...............PINK gravel...........a
little tree stump and some cool looking fake
plants and grasses............I even added
two gold fish that were swimming around in
one of my turtle tanks..................so
Brooke was very happy...........she has her
own tank in her own room now.................and
Kyle wants one next..............Oh my!!!.......... |
| |
| Sunday_June_1 |
| |
Well
Theresa and the girls got home this morning
at 3 am..........11 girls in a limo dressed
to kill!!......they went to three different
bars and danced ...........I'm still being
a big baby about it.......;)......that's all
I got to say.......LOL.............T was too
tired to play volley ball down Big Rock today...........yeah
right!!!!.............so Kyle and I went down
to play............Kyle got bored in a couple
hours and was asking for his "mommy"..........usually
there are a bunch of kids down there playing...........but
not today...........so I called T and asked
her to come get him....;)...............I
got her out of the house anyway!!.............we
had some killer games too!! |
| |
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