- Hey, good morning everybody
and welcome to the vlog.
I hope the start of your day is incredible.
I'm just hanging out with some Ball Pythons today
and I have a box that's gonna be here any minute,
and I'm gonna be honest with you,
the contents of the box
isn't as important as the meaning of what's in this box.
You guys know that I've been on kind of an up
and down journey when it comes to
one particular project that I founded probably 10 years ago.
And that project is the Sunset project.
And you guys know that this year we had a couple
possible to possible head clutches
that we cut with no success.
Because you can always do this hard.
Let's go,
last egg.
Let's go, let's go, let's go.
Wish me luck.
Last egg.
Come on, please.
Please, please, please, please, please.
Ah, that's a normal Ball Python.
Well, this box,
that's gonna be here any minute,
has something in it that is going to be really,
truly emotional for me.
And if you remember,
yesterday this box was supposed to get here
and it ended up getting lost,
kind of making the kind of emotional journey
even more incredible.
So basically,
I'll get into some of those emotional things
and I'll get into why this project has been kind of
an emotional up and down battle.
But my buddy,
Brian Cusko from Triple B,
actually reached out to me
and he was kinda bummed
about what had happened with the Sunset project for me.
And he was like,
"You know what, Brian, I wanna send you one."
And I had mentioned that sure I could go out
and buy a Sunset,
even though we produced the first Sunset,
but it was about a principle thing.
And again,
we'll get more into that a little bit later.
But I just couldn't bring myself to buy something that...
And by the way,
Triple B stickers,
thank you so much, Brian.
That I felt was kind of unrightfully
taken away from me, right?
So I was like, "You know,
I'm gonna produce my own.
I can't see myself do it."
Well, Brian reached out to me and said,
"You know what,
you've done a lot of things for me."
And I'll tell you a little more
about what the whole journey of his Sunset project was.
And he said,
"I wanna send you something."
And guess what.
Inside this bag is a little baby Sunset.
Now, you gotta remember,
this will be the first time
that I've seen a baby Sunset in my own hands
since I produced the last one years ago.
And I'm gonna be honest with you,
just the thought of this
is just kind of tripping me out right now.
Oh my gosh.
So he told me that he had a Cinnamon and an Enchi
and I wasn't sure which one he was gonna send to me,
but he ended up sending me a little
Cinny Sunset Ball Python right here.
And again,
it's a little bit cold.
It's been in transit for the last day and a half.
It was supposed to be here yesterday,
but it's still okay.
It's still moving around.
And I tell you what guys,
I mean,
it's hard to explain the emotions of this project
because again,
going back all those years ago
when I paid $70,000 for the original sunset
out of Africa,
worked on it for years and years,
finally produced it and was at the pinnacle of it.
And then to have it kind of ripped away from me.
This is...
It's kind of...
It's hard to even explain,
to be honest with you.
The emotions of holding a Sunset again.
And I can't thank my friend Brian
for sending this to me.
He's (indistinct),
he's gonna be here later on tonight
and we're gonna get a chance to celebrate together.
He's gonna be on the podcast and...
But, guys.
I mean I'll tell you,
I thought that one day I might produce...
I'm shaking right now.
I thought that maybe one day I might produce another Sunset.
And until then I didn't think I would ever hold one,
but here I am holding one.
And it is...
It's hard to explain the emotion
that I'm going through right now
because...
It's...
It's been a very difficult journey with this one
because I love this project so much
and it's been such a hit in the reptile world
because it's so unique and it's so different.
And I was so proud that we were the founders of it.
And for the last seven or eight years
to not have anything to do with the project
has been so hard for me.
You know,
mentally,
to have to know that I should have been producing so many
and been on the cutting edge of something
and it didn't work out.
And to actually hold one again.
It's...
I'm so thankful.
I'm so thankful for Brian
for sending me this.
And I'm so thankful that I'm back in this project.
It's so beautiful.
And I don't care about the money side.
I don't care about the fact that there's value to it
or that one day I might produce
something that's worth something.
I don't care about any of that.
I just wanted to work with it again
and start to play around
and put it into projects that I was super excited about.
And again, I just wasn't gonna buy one
because I felt it wasn't right.
That I would go out
and spend money on something that I should have already had.
And I wanted to do it by just...
Okay, I'll eventually produce one
with all the possible hets that I have.
But now that Brian has sent me this beautiful animal,
and as it's warming up it's moving around more,
we'll get this set up right away
so it can get on heat and get back to good.
'Cause it's definitely had a difficult journey.
And again,
it's kind of ironic that,
through this bumpy journey of this project
that this animal would get lost and show up a day later.
And by the way,
Brian said this was the first snake that he ever had
that got lost in transit.
So it was like,
almost like what's the bad Juju on this project?
But here we are guys.
A Cinnamon Sunset Ball Python
that is absolutely
mind numbing.
I mean,
it is crazy.
And I just cannot wait to start working with this.
So again,
we'll talk a lot more about this project
with Brian on the podcast
when we have a couple hours to talk about it
and really get into it and so on.
But there it is, guys.
I mean,
I think I need a nap
because I'm emotionally drained right now.
I mean,
it is so fricking gorgeous.
So.
All right,
I'm gonna go set this baby up.
Again,
I just can't get over how absolutely gorgeous this snake is.
I mean,
I'm just gonna set it up,
let it get a little de-stressed,
warm up and stuff like that after a long journey.
And I'm sure a lot of you guys are kind of wondering
what I meant by the backstory of that.
You know, when we finally produced the Sunsets,
over the next couple years,
we were the only people in the world
that had Sunset Ball Pythons.
They were super sought after
and quite frankly,
very expensive.
And so things are going really well.
And I'll talk about how Brian Cusko
actually bought a pair of heterozygous for Sunsets
for $25,000 from me,
which ultimately are the parents
to the one that he sent me now.
But unfortunately,
and I don't want to get deep into it,
but someone that I entrusted with the collection,
actually stole all my adult heterozygous animals.
And again,
at that time BHB was a very big company,
much bigger than it is now.
And so,
I didn't know.
We had about 10 hets,
different type of mutations,
and all of them just weren't there, right?
And it was pretty easy to just take a Pastel het Sunset
and put a normal Pastel in his spot.
And I wasn't gonna notice a difference
'cause we had a lot, a lot of animals
and it wasn't until the next year when we bred them out,
we produced 49 eggs.
Now, on average we should have produced
probably 25 Sunsets.
At the time they were going for like $65,000 a piece.
We didn't produce even one Sunset.
Not even one out of 49 eggs.
At that point I had heard rumors that maybe it had happened,
but I was praying that it didn't.
And unfortunately that was the reality.
And I'm not gonna lie to you guys,
I don't want to get back in too deep into that.
All I want to say is that
it took the wind out of my sails.
I mean,
it basically changed my whole vision
of what I wanted to do with BHB,
but I don't want to make this into a sob story
because to be honest with you,
I wouldn't be where I am today if that didn't happen.
Because of that event and a few other things,
I really decided to move forward with my vision
of The Reptarium and it took years to get there,
but still,
it was like that was the catalyst that brought me here.
So yeah,
you could look at it as like,
"Oh my gosh, I lost a lot of money.
Life could have been different."
But the truth is,
if that wouldn't have happened
I may be still doing BHB on a big level
but I wouldn't have found the happiness
in life that I've found now
with The Reptarium and all the things that we're doing.
So in a way,
I looked at it as a blessing, right?
That made me move in a direction
that I really wanted to move in
but I was afraid to move in.
And finally I said,
"You know what?
It's time to start making that move."
To really add insult to injury,
my only Sunset male passed away the next year.
So then I was only left with a couple het males,
i.e. the reason why I have a bunch of possible hets,
because I took those het males
and bred them to produce possible hets.
And I thought one day we would actually produce the Sunsets.
And you've got to remember,
there's a few animals like the Pinstripe Ball Python,
the Sunset project,
the scaleless project,
the few projects that we were really proud
of and really changed our world, right?
And so the fact that we actually didn't even have a Sunset
in our collection anymore was a big bummer, right?
And the fact that we have one now is huge.
Even if I've never breed it again,
just to have it,
because again,
it's iconic to have a Pinstripe Ball Python,
Sunsets,
you know,
all the things that we kind of were known for.
And it was so hard,
I'm not gonna lie to you,
to not have that project.
But again, I don't want to look at it as a negative.
It was really a positive
because it moved me in the direction where I downsized BHB.
I moved into this place,
started the whole vision of The Reptarium
and got where we are today.
So the truth is,
is that although it might've seemed
like a horrible, horrible situation,
it was really the best thing
that could have happened to me
because it made me really,
really go after what I really wanted to do
and follow my dreams at that.
Now, when it comes to Brian Cusko,
let's get back to the hets that he bought from me.
Okay, guys,
I know that this is a kind of talky vlog.
I get it.
But it's a story that is really defines who I am
and the direction I went in.
So regardless,
Brian was one of the early people that bought
a pair of het Sunsets from me.
And he raised them up.
I think they were about two years old,
almost ready to breed,
and he called me one day and the female had passed away.
I mean, just out of nowhere,
she was doing well.
She passed away.
And you know,
I'd been in that position before
where I bought really expensive snakes
and had them not make it.
And you know,
it's a terrible feeling.
Not only is it
because you love the project,
but you've also invested a lot of money
and you were excited to produce it.
So at the time I had a bunch of hets,
like I had mentioned,
this is before that whole incident happened.
And so I said,
"You know what, Brian,
I'm gonna send you a almost ready to breed female for free.
I'm just gonna send it to you
because that's the right thing to do."
You know?
And I sent it to him
and sure enough that next year
he produced his first Sunset Ball Python.
And I remember him being so happy
and sharing those pictures.
And I was so happy for him,
as a matter of fact,
that was right around the time
that I was supposed to produce
and didn't produce,
but I was still super happy for him.
And so it was super cool to see a guy,
that is a good friend of mine,
succeed in something where it didn't look good.
And I was glad I had a little part to do with it, right?
So regardless,
now a few years later,
Brian produced and he called me up.
He said, "If I produce Sunsets this year,
I want to send you a male for free."
And I told him he didn't have to do that,
because again,
I'm not in the investment Ball Python game these days,
but at the same time that project was near and dear to me
and I wasn't ready to buy one.
So I was like, "If you want to, it's up to you."
Sure enough,
he ended up producing several of them this year,
had a really good year.
And now we have this project here.
And again,
he's coming in later tonight,
I'll put a link in the description to the podcast
'cause we'll be talking a lot about this
and a whole bunch of other things,
but it's just amazing
and what a crazy emotional ride.
And it's crazy to think that I now have
a Sunset back in the collection.
Excited to show Lori
the new Sunset Ball Python
because it's been kind of a rocky road
to get back into this project.
But this is, yeah,
this is super cute.
Take a look at it.
So here it is, Lori,
what do you think?
Isn't it pretty, it's actually--
- It's been a while.
Oh, okay.
- Yeah, it's a Cinnamon Sunset.
- So it's a Cinnamon.
So I can see that too.
Yeah.
No, I mean,
they're definitely pretty
and yeah I guess...
You know, it'll be nice to actually
have one back in the collection after--
You could see now that it's warmed up
it's a little feisty.
- Yes. - It wants to bite ya.
- Which is good.
That's a good sign.
- It is good.
Yeah, it came in a little bit chilly
after a day and a half in transit, you know.
But it's tongue response is good.
It looks really good.
So it's really awesome.
So, yeah.
So there it is.
You know,
Sunset's back at BHB
after a long hiatus.
I mean, how awesome is that?
There you have it, guys.
I wanted to take you on this emotional unboxing.
Sunset's back in the collection.
Again,
big shout out to my friend Brian.
Link in the description to all his stuff.
Go show him some love.
Go to his last video,
tell him in the comments how much you appreciate
what he did for me.
Again, if you guys wanna check out,
he's gonna be on the podcast.
Gonna talk a lot more about that.
As a matter of fact,
talking about the podcast,
right up here in the corner
you can subscribe to that podcast.
You can also see a whole playlist here of egg cutting
if you so choose.
On this side,
I hope that you're subscribed to this vlog channel.
If not,
go ahead and hit that subscribe button,
turn the post notifications on,
have an absolutely wonderful day.
Remember,
be kind to someone and I promise I'll see you tomorrow.