(upbeat instrumental music)
- Day four, COVID life.
And the one thing
that didn't change
when I was gone,
anacondas still breed.
And the one thing
you'll obviously notice
in this vlog is that
I'm here at the shop alone,
and after being isolated for a while,
it is so good
to be back with my animals.
Of course, Brillo here,
I missed you buddy.
Where are you at buddy?
Come on over here.
So it is amazing to be back here,
and he'll,
I'll give you kind of the scale
of one to 10,
me feeling great,
10 being like the best.
I'm probably like a seven right now,
so I don't feel too bad.
Hi, buddy.
Good to see you.
And obviously,
what I'm gonna be doing here is,
I can't stay isolated anymore,
is that when the crew leaves,
I'm gonna come into work,
and I'm gonna vlog with you guys.
So for the next few days,
at least until I test negative,
and that everything is okay,
you guys are just gonna have me.
Tomorrow, I may actually have Noah film
some stuff with the crew
when I'm not here
so that we can just see
how the crew is doing
and stuff like that, but for now,
we're just gonna to be hanging out
with the animals today
and I'm gonna to give you the update
about what's been gonna on with me
now that a new year has started,
even though it definitely started
a little bit rough for me.
Wow, I tell you what.
This iguana is unbelievable.
Now of course,
Mike and the crew
have done a tremendous job
just kind of taming out.
It's almost like a rock iguana
like Bella or Diddy,
and Dixie or Tiana
and lot of times,
green iguanas aren't this way
where you could see
I'm just petting him.
He's closing his eyes.
He's absolutely loving it.
I think it's amazing
that they've worked so hard
on these guys to get them so docile
and I tell you what,
it is amazing.
Look at this dewlap here.
Unbelievable.
I love the fact that people
can come to the reptarium,
and actually, you know,
pet this animal.
So regardless, the point is,
that I did want to kind of
update you on a couple of things today.
One of the things
was the fact that, you know,
we did that video
about the change in the vlog,
and of course,
I can't really make
much changes right now
cause it's just me.
You guys just got me.
You ain't got nobody else
until I get over this,
again, in the next few days,
I should be out of isolation.
I should be able to get back to normal
but the thing that, overwhelmingly,
you guys said,
now, of course,
you want me to do all this stuff
like travel and animal education,
all the stuff that we always do,
but overwhelming, by a big majority,
you guys said that you wanted to see
family adventure,
and behind the scenes crew type of stuff.
So not just animal stuff
you know, of course it's an animal vlog.
We're always gonna to be an animal vlog,
but you guys wanted to also see
kind of the stuff outside the shop
like we used to do.
We used to travel and just do fun stuff
as a family,
as a crew, stuff like that.
So we're definitely
gonna be bringing that
to the vlog pretty soon.
I'm not sure how you guys
feel about things,
but there's just something
about being around my animals
that just kind of cheers me up.
I mean obviously,
I was able to spend some time
with Juliet in the hotel room,
which was absolutely amazing,
and that was the thing
that kept me sane.
I'll be honest with you.
If I didn't have that 18 plus foot
reticulated python,
I think I would've went absolutely crazy
being isolated
in a hotel room like that,
but it's just getting back here
to the reptarium, it's like,
it just kinda made me feel
so much better,
to be honest with you.
I mean, you know,
seeing Ben and Jerry,
and just every enclosure we have.
I'm gonna to head over
to BHB a little bit,
and kind of check what's going on
with the breeding stuff and stuff like that.
I don't,
I'm sure you guys are same way,
whether you have dogs or cats
or reptiles or whatever.
It's like when you're kind of
a little bit down,
and you're kind of like,
oh, I feel sick,
I've got COVID again.
To see the animals
just kind of brighten me up.
So I went from like
a seven when I walked in,
now I'm probably more like
an eight and a half
and speaking of about being
an eight and a half,
one of the things I really put
a lot of thought into here,
around the holiday season
and again,
I always talk about after January 1st,
I wanna kind of reinvent myself again,
or at least re-evaluate
where we're at with things,
and so on like that,
cause I wanted to kind of
be more authentic to you guys.
Now don't get me wrong.
I'm never fake.
You guys see what you get,
and you get what you see
and all that stuff.
But you know, it's not always a 10.
It's not always an eight and a half.
There are days that it's a four
because I'm stressed out.
You guys know that I deal with anxiety.
I've done so much better.
I'd like to talk
a little bit more about that.
Not like having the anxiety vlog
by any stretch or the matter.
I still want to keep things positive
cause the fact is that
even when I was like,
really in the darkest days,
I'm still a positive person, right?
I have a positive outlook
even when things
seemed really, really terrible,
but I know you guys have days
where you're not feeling that good,
and sometimes you want to watch a vlog,
and feel good about whatever you know.
Have those kind of good vibes
and all that type of stuff.
Well you know,
I want to just be
more genuine about that.
Maybe uplift you guys
when I'm not having
the greatest time either
and be honest with you
and maybe tell you how, in those days
where I am a one or a two or three
or something like that,
I'm able to still get out of bed,
and get to work
and kind of still love what I do
and keep pressing forward
cause like I said,
there's no doubt that there were times
in 2020 and early 2021
where I didn't know
how I even functioned,
yet I was still able
to come to work every day,
and vlog and keep a positive outlook.
So I just decided, you know what,
I wanna be more real with you guys.
I wanna tell you guys what I'm thinking
and there's so many things,
that oftentimes, I kind of thought,
I don't know if I should say this
cause I don't want you guys to think
I'm a downer
because the fact is,
I don't really look at things
in a negative way,
but hey, listen,
we all deal with ups and downs,
and the truth is on social media
oftentimes, you just see the best things
like, oh, look at this great Claude.
You're looking how great this is,
but the fact is,
a lot of times it's a grind to get there
and I want to show you more of that.
Let me know in the comments,
if you guys don't mind that.
Speaking of boas,
we actually have this Motley male here
and this Hypo.
That's het for albino
so this is actually a Motley het albino
and a Hypo that's het for albino here,
absolute ripper,
and she looks like she's
actually ovulating or just about
to ovulate here.
She's curling up on the heat
and stuff like that.
I don't want to talk too much
about this stuff here because tomorrow,
I'm actually gonna be at BHP
the entire time
because we're open
at the reptarium tomorrow night,
so when I come in
when the crew leaves,
I can't go over to the reptarium
so tomorrow's vlog
will be a little bit of Noah vlogging
and then here, me at BHB,
away from everyone else,
isolating to make sure
I don't get anyone else sick.
So I think we're gonna
to head back over to the reptarium
and finish the vlog up over there,
if you don't mind, but tomorrow,
I think I'm gonna to spend some time
right in this aisle here,
just showing you some really
cool ball pythons
and just talk about some other things
that are on my mind
and I am breaking a little bit of
one of my carda rules
is which don't handle giant snakes
by yourself.
I am here alone today
so I've only got Gemma a little bit way,
but Gemma is such a sweetheart,
you know,
there's a few snakes
that I definitely don't have an issue
with toy handling on my own,
but I still don't think
it's a great idea as a overall thing,
but again, I made sure
she was in a good mood.
She absolutely is
and she looks absolutely amazing.
Unfortunately, she's still not eating
and I hope she does pretty soon,
but you know,
every experience
is a life experience, right?
You've got to take something
out of it and, you know,
although this trip to MrBeast
and try to film,
it didn't work out.
By the way, out of the three times
I've worked with MrBeast,
two of the three times,
we ended up not even filming,
but we are supposed to be
doing some filming
here in the next week, week and a half
or something like that
because they're having
a lot of problems with outbreak,
with COVID as well
so once everything calms down,
we'll get it back down there.
We're gonna to do a banger
of a video down there.
But I still learned
a lot about a lot of things.
I learned about the way
that they handle things
when they're on production.
I learned some things
about myself being in isolation
for a while, not around anyone.
Thankfully Jay was with me,
at least, on the phone,
where we could continue to talk.
Now unfortunately,
Jay had to drive home with me
and we tried to take
every precaution we could, but sadly,
he actually was showing
some signs of COVID today.
You know, again, just cold stuff.
He's fine. I talked to him
a handful of times today.
He's just got a little bit
of a stuffy nose,
a little bit of a sore throat,
much like I did.
I think he's gonna to be completely fine
but unfortunately,
this virus is just terrible
and it's so contagious
that being around me,
even driving down there
when I didn't know I had COVID,
you know, we weren't taking precautions
and unfortunately
Jay's gonna to be
out of the picture here
for a few days too, but hey,
he'll still be editing the vlog
and I miss you brother.
Man, I tell you what,
I love being on the other side
of this camera.
Take a look at that albino.
- [Woman] Oh my gosh. I love it.
- I love this turtle pond
and the albino is always so brave
and always just out there.
It's not afraid of people
like the other ones.
The other ones are getting better,
but the albino is so good
and I told you guys before.
I've become a turtle addict.
I'm not gonna to lie to you here
and even know this log is only gonna be
12, 13, 14, 15 minutes.
I've actually already been
at the shop here
for about an hour and a half
or two hours,
really just walking around,
looking at the place, you know,
again, checking out Ivy and Ares
and checking out all the animals
and I tell you what,
when I'm gone,
I miss this place so much.
I mean, don't get me wrong.
I mean, look how great Frances looks
and Heins up there.
I mean, they're just beautiful.
Jessica did a great job
with some more pops here,
which by the way, I noticed one thing
when I walked over
that Jessica did when I was gone.
She actually put some foliage
into the chameleon's cage
in particular, Karma's cage.
It looks so cool
so I'll show you that right now.
It's really amazing.
She's always, she's so great
with this stuff
but look at this enclosure here.
She puts some big leafs over here.
Pop over here.
Karma's looking amazing over here.
We'll take a little bit closer look.
Look, look at this.
Wow. Look at that.
Absolutely wonderful.
I just love the way
that enclosure turned out
so Jessica's always surprising me
with kind of redoing things
and stuff like that.
We're so lucky to have her
because she's absolutely wonderful.
There's no doubt about that,
but again, having been walking around,
just,
I don't even want to leave.
I'm gonna to go home here
in a little bit
because I do need to rest up
and hopefully get to that, you know,
from that seven or eight and a half
because of a little bit of adrenaline
to a 10
so that here in the next three days,
when I'm out of isolation,
I come back and just raring to go
cause we have a lot to do
over the next couple months.
Reptarium expansion update
and a little bit of
a kind of back and forth question.
Let me know in the comments.
I need your help
because I'm thinking of some things.
We're about maybe two and a half
to three weeks away from getting
the construction paperwork,
the blueprints basically,
of the new expansion.
That's basically where,
it tells the, bought the footings
and all the steel
and all the structure that we need
and stuff like that.
That way, I can actually
go to general contractors.
I have several in mind,
and I can actually
give them these blueprints
and they can quote me the price
of what it'll cost
per the actual blueprint,
not just a conceptual drawing.
By the way,
we just got rattlesnakes back in,
plushy wise.
They've been out of stock
for about six months now
so that makes me pretty excited.
You guys know that things are crazy
in the world right now.
I mean, construction prices are way up,
lumber prices, steel prices,
and you know,
just costs of all materials
like I said, shortages everywhere,
labor shortages, all this type of stuff.
So here, coming up here in a few weeks,
when I get these blueprints,
have to go to these contractors
that are overworked, understaffed,
supply shortages, all this stuff,
and I have to get a bid on this.
Now, kind of have an idea, an estimate,
of what it's gonna to cost,
about $4 million
total for the expansion,
about two and a half million dollars
building prices,
where I kind of had
the initial kind of estimate.
That was before the blueprints,
so it could be lower, could be more,
I don't know, have no idea,
but then about one
and a half million dollars
between the aquarium
and the reptarium expansion
and so on like that.
That means that's a lot of money guys.
I have some money.
I'm gonna to be putting every dollar
to my name that I have been
kind of trying
to build up over the last few years
and I'm gonna to put it towards this,
but I'm gonna also have to borrow money,
which is really scary.
Now they actually say in business,
typically, the time that you're
the most afraid is the right time
to do something,
but I'm not necessarily sure
I agree with that all the time,
by the way, you know? If you're.
You're absolutely gorgeous today,
looking amazing.
Look at that sheen, unbelievable
and the reason I'm talking to you guys
about this is again,
and I want to know in the comments
what you think,
not only about what I'm talking
to you about,
but also the fact that,
I told you, I want to be a little
more transparent this year,
a little bit more genuine this year,
take you guys on the journey,
not just, I mean,
I always take you
on the good, the bad, the ugly,
but I want to really
get real with you guys, ya know,
on all levels, right?
I want you guys to really take,
along on this journey
because listen,
this journey of doing this expansion
is monumental.
I mean, I'm risking it all.
You know what I mean?
I've worked my entire life
to get to where I am right now
and I'm about to put it all on the line,
just for this expansion.
Oho doggy.
Carl, you're looking sexy today man.
Holy moly.
So the reason I'm asking you this
is that, you know,
you wonder if delay of six
or eight months
or something like that
would be a massive difference.
I mean, I'm no genius,
but I like to think of myself
as a pretty decent businessman.
I try to think about things
on a business end as much
as I possibly can
because the more successful I am
in all the business I run,
the more I can put money
into the animals,
conservation, education
and all that type of stuff. Right?
So it's kind of important
to make the right move
at the right time
and I do wonder,
is the expansion the right time now?
Now I don't know. My heart says yes.
I want to expand right now.
I want to start construction today
if I possibly can,
but the fact is that
if I delay it a little bit,
what will be the quote in say February,
as opposed to August or September,
because most economists
are thinking that the economy
and the supply shortage
and the labor shortage
is probably gonna start
to look the other way
kind of mid summerish. Right?
So what's gonna basically happen
is we might be getting into
a little bit of a recession.
We might be getting into a position
where all those people
that don't want to work
will go back to work
and also,
all those huge build projects
that all the contractors are on
are gonna be done
because people aren't
gonna be spending money.
I wonder if my girl Bella misses me.
Think she's just looking at me like dad,
I'm not gonna to come down.
You can come see me Bella Bells.
I miss you, baby girl.
She is such a cat.
There's no doubt about it,
but of course,
there's that old saying that says,
you know,
you want to buy low and sell high
or whatever the case may be,
so obviously, here she comes.
Hi baby girl, what you doing sweetie?
I miss you so much. Come see me, baby.
Hi baby.
Hi.
How are you been?
I know it's been a few days
since I've seen you
and I love you so much.
She is such an amazing animal.
You can't tell me that reptiles
aren't unbelievably smart.
I mean, she's coming right over.
She sees me. She's like, dad,
I missed you and stuff like that.
I'm telling you what,
you guys saw it right there.
It's amazing
and I get to experience this
every single day,
but the fact is that I think that,
I wonder if it will,
I don't know guys, you know,
I need help with this.
You know, I mean, again,
it's the scariest thing
I've ever done, right?
I mean, do I believe
it's gonna to be a success?
Absolutely.
I know it's gonna to be a success
because we can take
what we did with the reptarium
and we can literally triple or quadruple
what we're doing with more space
for the reptiles zoo,
an entire aquarium,
a dig site, you know,
all this other stuff,
it's gonna to be absolutely amazing,
but it's also, again, very scary
cause I'm risking everything
and you know, listen,
if I wait six or eight months
or 10 months or whatever it is,
is it gonna really matter
from the grand scheme
of me achieving it?
Probably not.
Is it gonna to hurt my heart?
Absolutely.
But could it save me
five, six, $700,000?
It's potential, to do it. Right?
So let me know in the comments
what you guys think.
Should I just porridge forward
and say, doesn't matter,
let's just get this thing done
or should I maybe
pump the brakes a little bit
and still get prices quoted
in February and March
and stuff like that,
but if they come in too high,
to shelf it for another six months
and go back.
I don't know.
The problem is that,
I think the best time to build
is like fall, which is gonna kind of,
need to be going about
February, March. Right?
So if I wait til fall,
we're probably looking
at the next spring
before I can start building
so it's just gonna
put the project off six or eight months,
but I just need to know from you guys.
What do you think?
It's been on my mind tremendously
so I really need to make a decision here
in the next six or eight weeks,
where I'm actually going,
am I my pushing forward now
and just saying heck with it,
I don't care that we're building
in the worst possible time ever,
or should I put the brakes
on a little bit
and be a little bit more business savvy.
I waited my whole life
to do the reptarium,
you know,
and it's been such a blessing
and an amazing thing to see
all these incredible animals
every single day
and be able to share it
with so many people
and I do have to wonder, you know,
waiting another six or eight months,
is it gonna to kill me?
I don't know. You know,
I think that maybe
if I saved that money,
I could put more money
into the exhibits.
I could put more money
into the expansion
in ways that I can't do
if I spend all my money in a bad market
so the expansion is gonna happen.
A hundred percent, it's gonna to happen.
Well I shouldn't say a hundred,
nothing's a hundred percent,
but you know,
it's probably gonna to happen. I mean,
barring any calamities,
it's gonna to happen.
It's a matter of just when
and should I push forward?
I don't know guys
so I just want to come to you,
and these are the things
I want to talk to you guys
about this year.
Being more genuine,
bringing up my concerns,
my thought instead of just going like,
yeah we're gonna expand.
It's gonna to be amazing.
I want you guys to know
what I'm thinking,
you know,
how my brain is actually working
and what challenges
that I face going forward.
Now, wait you'll,
as we do this together,
you're gonna to feel
even more part of it
because really,
you guys are a part of it.
If it wasn't for you guys,
it wouldn't happen anyway
so you guys are so important
and I want to take you guys
along on the journey.
Trust me, there's gonna to be
a lot of amazing experiences
and a lot of days
I'm gonna to probably be crying
because I'm gonna
have a nervous breakdown so
I'm just in the very first stages of it,
but let me know what you guys think.
With that being said,
I'm gonna to spend a little more time
with my animals here
and head home and try to rest up
and try to, you know,
cure myself of this.
I miss my crew.
I miss everyone.
I miss you, Jay.
I know you're watching it.
You're editing this
so I miss you buddy
and I hope you feel better soon
so that we can be together
and start making some magic for 2022
so thanks again guys,
for everything.
I appreciate it.
I hope that you enjoyed the video.
If you did, here's a playlist.
You can watch more videos
if you so choose.
It would mean the world to me.
You know what else
would mean the world to me?
Right over here,
hit that subscription button.
Thank you so much for everything.
Have a wonderful day reptile army.
Remember, be kind to someone
and I promise,
I'll see you in the next one.