The Snake Keeper Blog

Well here we are in 2004. What a quick year 2003 was looking back. I think 2004 will be the best year in ball pythons we have ever seen. New morphs should be produced by many of the breeders.

Dry wall done.

It should be an exciting year to say the least. The building is about two weeks away from being complete. We are so anxious to get in it is driving me crazy. I just want to put all snake duties on hold till we get in but we can not do that at this time. Breeding activity is really picking up now.

ready for scratch coat.

Got some of those key males doing their job. Having both male Genetic Stripes getting with the program really eased the tension this season. I was about the have a Winter BBQ if he did not get to business.

Hate to be stuck down there, 11 feet down.

Any ways back to the building. The septic tank was set yesterday; dry wall is complete just waiting for texture and paint. The outside is scratched and ready to be browned. It is really close.

Bob the tractor man! He is great when ever you hear I am on the tractor it is one of his.

We wish you all a very happy and prosperous new year!!!!!!!!!!!

What a day! You know how it goes no need me telling you about it. Well they started wrapping the building today. The doors and windows are all installed.

Almost wrapped.

Passed the inspections so one more then we do not have any more till the room is complete. I can not wait! It is getting close now and we really need the space. Actually I just need to decide which snakes we need to sell. We were holding back the real nice ones and I may have to let a few go. It is so hard to sell them though because they are so cool looking. Think we will wait till we are in the new building and see how much room we have and go from there.

Ivory Ball

Here are a couple pics of the Ivory ball. Interesting how the color is disappearing. Only the yellow stripe down the back is visible for the most part now. Still has the dark mark on the head but the body is almost all white. These guys are just incredible.

Head shot.

You can see the two males side by side here. They are not much for showing their heads as you can tell. The snow ball is about the same as well losing its color as it is getting older. I tried taking some pics of her but she just does not sit still for nothing. Once we get the now place I will have an area set up for pics and we can get new pics of all these.

Are you seeing double?

I hope you all have a great Christmas. Be safe out on the roads and all and I hope you all get what you are looking for tomorrow. I should just go tie a bow around the new building and say that is my present. Actually it is a present for the snakes. I think they are going to like it as much as we are going to as well.

Merry Christmas!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And with it comes the flu season. I hope everyone is weathering it well. I am the only survivor in our house to not get it so far.

cooler and roof done.

Colette has been down for several days now but is starting to feel better. But we are doing good looking toward a great holiday.

The building is really coming along. All this progress in only 15 working days. I sure have no place to complain on the speed this is coming together. The plan is to have it dry walled and possibly scratch coated by Wednesday. If all that comes to pass we will be getting real close.

Wall insulating complete.

We may get in by the middle of January if we are lucky. I am thinking of February 1st any sooner is just a bonus. The wiring job the electrician, alarm & internet/cctv guys have done is just amazing. The advances in technology have really helped in building this new place. The roof is done completely now and the cooler has been installed. Tomorrow windows and doors and finish rough electrical. Should be an exciting day seeing it all put into place.

South side of room.

That is about all to update at this time. We hope you all have a great Christmas & holiday this week.

So much is going on at this time of year. Here we are at day 12 in building the snake room. So much progress in such a short time. Just for a break last night I headed over to a house getting an “Extreme Makeover” a few miles from here.

Roof going on.

You may have seen the pilot for it last week. Well they are doing more and this one will air in February. So I got there about 2:00AM and looked through the place. It is interesting to see how things can change. Can not tell you too much about it as it is all secret till it airs.

As for our place the roof went on today. Should finish wiring the place tomorrow and be ready to insulate on Friday after we are inspected on Thursday.

200 amps of power, Ahrgh “More Power”

All the ducting was installed today for the cooler. Alarm people scoped the place out as well as the internet guy. It is all coming together to be a great snake breeding facility. I just got one of the sinks today. You will like it. Once it is installed I will shoot a pic of it. It is BIG!

Looking for the ultimate vacuum system for this place right now. Really need something that sucks. LOL I have several people checking things out for me right now.

inside view

Well that is about it for today. Not much to report on breeding as it was feeding day today. Always makes for a fun day. More when there is more progress.

Yes, eight days so far on the building and this is where we are at right now.

Shear wall in place.

The shear wall is complete and now you can really see it taking shape. Yes, that is my shadow in the photo. How about that crane, was there just enough space there or what? Now the trusses are all being put into place. Trying to beat the rain that may come in tomorrow. We will have to see how far they get today. Had to make a few modifications today to the plan. We really did not like where the water heater was so we moved it out of the building.

The crane squeaks in.

So we had to pour another pad for it but now we will have an outside closet shall we say for the water heater and the vacuum system. I think that will really be a better idea. Plus the enclosure will look just like the building. So it will be cool.

Wow, I have to get some more pics taken of some of these snakes for you to see. The Hypo Mojave is just sick! The way they are turning out is amazing.

Trusses going up.

I will try to get a few good pics of them in the next few days. There is a few more that are really nice you will want to see as well. Just have to get some good pictures.

Yes, it is really coming fast this year. It seems like this year went real fast. I always tell the kids that once you get past the holidays the tough part of the school year is over. I guess that is easy for me to say since I am not doing the school work. But I sure feel like it is the adults doing the work.

Well the wood arrived this morning for the framers. They did not mess around once it got here. The walls are all done and we are just waiting for the trusses to get here tomorrow and we will be ready for a framing inspection.

The finished slab.

The plan is to have a roof on this place by the weekend. Once that is done we can do everything on the inside under cover. These guys are the best framers around.

One long wall going up.

Look at them lift that wall into place. That is over 60 feet of wall. It impressed me to see these guys knock this part of the job out in one day.

It is cool to walk around inside of it now thinking of where everything is going to be. When you look at a slab it always looks smaller but once you get the walls into place you can really see what you have to work with for space.

Walls going up.

Things are looking good for the balls. They always seem to get the new stuff before us humans do though. Heck, ours had a cooler before we even had one on the house. But it seems to go like this, you take care of the snakes and they in return will take care of you.

Here is the Super Pastel I was telling you all about that is so cool we just had to hold him back this year. Colette just could not let this one go.

A very nice Super Pastel

I can not blame her it is really nice. It does not look quite this orange in person. Once the new building is done I will get some good pics. There is a special room just for photos in the new building. That will make things much nicer.

Everyone has been emailing asking how the breeding is going and what we are going to have so here are a few answers to those questions. Look at those stripes go!

stripe breeding a het stripe.

Yes I said stripes; those are two different male stripes breeding in these pics at the same time. I have been waiting years to see this happen.

Stripe breeding a pastel

So now we have two stud male stripes. It is about time!

How about this Chocolate Fade? You have to love seeing this going on in the cage. People have really taken a liking to this new unproven morph.

The chocolate fade.

We hope to get a few clutches from him this year. We think it will prove out. It has all the signs that it will, but who knows. The Coffee looked like a winner as well but we know how that one went.

Then there are the hypos. This Orange hypo is something to look at; can you see that orange in it? That is not Photo shopped or anything that is the real thing.

Orange hypos on the way!

Just amazing! Guess we will have some hypos this year by the way things are shaping up. They sure do sell fast as everyone found out this year.

Performing Animal Troup came by the other day; their facility is just down the street. We rent out snakes and rodents to them for the movies. Well they called to get some balls for a reality show again. This time it was for the executives who put on the show. I guess they were having a holiday party or something. So what they wanted is a ten gallon tank full of snakes. Well not full but enough so you could not see the bottom of the tank. The producer wanted corn snakes but we changed their minds on that one. So we gave them about eighteen 3-18 month old ball pythons to put in this tank. It looked great. Here is what they had to do. They put a marble in the bottom of the tank and then they had to reach in through the snakes and find the marble. Well the snakes were moving all over the place just as planned and many of the guests were intimidated just enough! What a bunch of light weights! Reality show executives that could not reach into a tank of snakes! Heck with the stuff they make people eat and do on that show you would think they could do anything! Well I wish it was going to be on TV so you could see it, but from what I was told it will not be.

Hey, if anyone in the So. Cal. area needs some live mice let me know. I have a few thousand I can spare right now. I know everyone probably has too many at this time of year. Well that is all for today’s news.

Yes!!!! Today the slab for the new ball room is being laid as we type. This is just so cool. Do you know how long I have been waiting to build this room? I am not just talking about since trying to get permits. I mean I had to really convince Colette of the need for it for a long time. I do not even know what finally changed her mind. Maybe it was just not worth telling me no any longer I do not know. But here we are and it is going in fast. I just hope the pace can keep up. Would it just be unreal to be moving in on 1/1/2004 now that would be a reason to celebrate. Any ways thought you would like to see some pics of how it is going. Now it is dark out and they are still working the cement. Have to get that perfect finish. Going out to take some pics now of the snakes. Colette wants me to get a few pics of this Super Pastel we have. It is about the nicest one I have ever seen. Hey I have access to a few one year old Freedom Breeder mouse racks. If you are in the Southern Ca. area and can pick them up let me know. They are a good deal and come full of mice if you want them. They are in perfect shape. Email me if you can use them.

Can you believe it is already December? This year has one by so fast. To think that we already have eggs on the way for the 2004 season seems so unreal. You know it is funny how time passes in the snake world. Its 30 days here 60 days there type of a thing waiting for laying and hatching. Then before you know it the season is over. Sure is a lot of fun though. I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. We had a great time traveling. We took off for a week and heading for the mountains of Utah. Longest trip we had ever taken with the kids. Everything went really well.

Now we are back and is there work to be done. Thought I would never get the rats finished yesterday. Now Monday was the day. Yes on Monday they started our new building. They are not messing around either. The first day the slab was formed; Tuesday got all the rough plumbing so we can have it inspected. Today will be inspection and then the rest of the steel goes down then another inspection on Thursday then the slab gets poured on Friday. We are just really happy that it is finally getting done. I know it sounds weird but I just think having more room is going to produce better results in many areas.

It is really hard when people come over there is no room to just sit down and talk. I hope that this new room will allow us to have some space to sit a chat when people come by. Probably be a lot of getting up and down as you talk a little then it’s oh come over here and look at this one. You know what I mean. It seems you can not get enough of looking at these ball pythons. If any of you have any great snake room ideas send them to me. I am always looking for new ideas to incorporate in a new building. I have another question for you. Those solar tubes you can put in the roof. Do any of you have them in your house or something? What I need to know is and a full moon night how much light comes through? Do you think it is enough to fool the night time drop sensors into thinking it is daytime? Email me and let me know if you have any experience with that.

Trying to figure it all out before it is too late. Just like with the electrician. He figures 100 amps would be enough, I said no make it 200 amps. He stands there thinking how can you use more than 100 amps. So we take him in the snake room and his eyes pop out. Now he understands why we need so much power. He was also perplexed about the amount of dedicated circuits we are having out in but again once he calculated it out he understands. Just amazing how much electricity we use breeding snakes. Well we will see how it goes today. Should be good. Guess I better give Lindy a call soon to get some more racks. I have got hold back babies out grown the boxes so I need some more adult racks.

Have a great holiday season everyone!

I got it, I got it, I finally got the permit to build the new facility. FOUR months in plan check can you believe that? Yesterday I had had enough called up the supervisor down there had some words with him and amazingly enough he pulled out the plans while I was on the phone looked at the fire walls and passed them off. So that is it. DONE.
Now I just need to work the builder over on the price a bit and we will have the ball rolling. Any ways I thought you would like to know. Many of you know we have been fighting this for some time. I wanted to be in the building by Dec. 1st but now I am looking at Feb. 1st if I am lucky. Well we will see how it goes. We are taking next week off for Thanksgiving so we will get started after the holiday.

Not much else going on here, few snakes breeding here and there have a clutch hatching next week. Trying to get a few male up to size for breeding but you all know how that is we are all doing the same thing. I should get some more pics of snakes for sale up after the 1st as well. If you are looking I still have super pastels, mojave females, axanthics, het axanthics, het clown, genetic stripe hets, normals, het albinos and more. Just let me know what you are in the market for and maybe we have what you need. Have a great Thanksgiving and drive safe.

This past Saturday was a Super Saturday or a Family Fun day for us. We had a great time, in fact so much fun I have to show you some pictures. We started by taking the children to the airport for some free airplane rides. Three of our four got to go up for a short flight. It was their first time to experience flying and as luck would have it they loved it. Now they want to go again. Maybe the next time Stan makes is way out here in his plane I will have to trade him some snakes for some plane rides for the kids. Any ways they thought looking down and seeing the town how it looks from above was really cool.

Then from there it was off to the Monster trucks. We have never made it to the Monster show before. Grave Digger was there and is this guy insane or what? Check out this shot, he came in at who knows what speed turned the wheel and slid in the spot you see him in here in this photo. I do not know how he got that truck in that small spot but it was cool to watch. Must be that quad steering or something. Then his first heat he stood the truck straight up and nearly lost it. This picture shows it going up but the camera was not fast enough to catch him on the next bounce but we thought it was all over. He recovered but it was close. As you can guess he won every round. One of the rigged shows where he was the star. In fact he did not win the last race but they said he did. I think the other guy probably got this but kicked after we all left. You are not supposed to win the star attraction. Any ways one more thing. The free style motorcycles were cool as well. Check these guys out, they make it look so easy. I am afraid I am going to see my son Scott out on the tractor making ramps soon in the back yard. You should have seen his face light up watching these guys get air. It was really a good time. If you have not been to one of those shows you should go. Just to smell the nitro methane made it worth it to me.

Yesterday we had a pre eggs shed. You know what that means. The first clutch of 2004 will be hatching in mid February. Looks like the incubator will not be getting a rest this year. This will actually be nice. It is usually a drag to shut it down as that is where most of the excitement takes place. Once it goes off it seems like it takes forever before more snakes hatch. So be watching in February for that first clutch. That is all for now. Have a great day.