Jungle Maintenance Day!

[00:00:01]What's going on? I'm hard at work getting this camp dialed in for the summer. Making sure animals are happy, healthy, and the environments are clean.

[00:00:08]We're going to do some landscaping today. So, get ready. We got some work to do.

[00:00:17]Okay, you guys know I wasn't quite happy with the quick clean that I did uh last week. The ponds just weren't staying clean, and that's because I didn't really do a deep dive into them. Well, I did that. We're clearing up this pond right now. I'm super happy. I've drained it. I've re uh I've refilled it. I've just got to pull out the sump pump. Woo.

[00:00:37]And I got to not fall in it. But you can see one of our radiated tortoises is actually nibbling away on some of the refues, some of the plants that I've ripped out. We had all these ferns here.

[00:00:48]I didn't like the way it looked, so I ripped them out. We used the L47. I'm going to go along this edge of the rock wall on the opposite side here. We're going to pull out all the ferns. We're going to try and transplant some of the alicacas that just don't seem to be happy where they are. Let's move them over where water overflows. They'll get more water. They'll have more nutrientrich uh sludge, which I've been pulling out of the bottom of our vault here. Uh we've done a real massive clean of the vault. We use the noodle pad right here that Aquacape gave me. And that seems to be a better solution for me as far as keeping the vault clean and clear from any debris cuz we get some of the uh wood chips, the reptark that I've played out there. Some of it washes in here. But we're already seeing rapid clearing of this pond. Let me show you what that's going to look like here.

[00:01:37]Because two days ago, I actually did the original aquacape ecosystem. You can see here, we really, we meaning me, I really went to town and cleared it up nicely.

[00:01:48]So, we can really see the bottom of it.

[00:01:51]It's super clean, super clear. We pressure washed out all the sludge, all the grime, and cleaned out the uh intake bay, cleaned out the stream. I even cleaned out the bofall. So, I want to really get to work, start pulling things out, and start replanting some of these plants. This is kind of fun for me. It's a lot of work, but I think it's going to look good when it's done. Here's what I'd like to do. I'm going to pull out all these ferns. Okay, we might get rid of some of these grasses. I'm not sure, but I'm going to clean all this out real quick. Best I can. I'm going to have to use tools. Some of these roots are really, really good. Probably trim some of this up just to kind of see what it's doing. I don't know if I want to keep the fountain grass on this side or not.

[00:02:37]We got to clean uh the stuff that I've already pulled out. a few more dialing in in this area. And then I also have uh some other work I've got to do over there at Freda's Pond. And of course, we're going to be seeing some animals, too. But right now, let's get to work uh getting this place dialed in. So, you know what that means, right? Time lapse.

[00:03:21]Happy.

[00:03:42]I feel Heat. Hey, Heat.

[00:05:46]Hey, Heat. Heat.

[00:08:10]Okay, so I'm nearly done. I've planted some alicacia. We got some Assyrian bananas, uh, variegated bananas. But I wanted to show you something. So, it's it's always remarkable when you're doing this kind of work cuz you always find something interesting. And I wanted to share this with you guys. So, I moved this rock to get at these weeds. And if you look down here, what do you see?

[00:08:30]These look to be snake eggs that have hatched maybe last season.

[00:08:38]But look at that. That was their nest under this rock. We had some snake eggs or could be lizards, but I'm thinking black racer. That's the most obvious choice. But look at that. Isn't that cool? So, life is happening here at the camp. And like I said, I just moved this rock so I can get into this and start pulling this out cuz these are all ferns that I just don't want to grow back anytime soon. So, if I could pull a lot of the roots out, it saves me some work down the road. But I've been going pretty hardcore all morning and uh I'm I'm excited. I'm pretty much done with this part of my day. Then of course we have other things to do, but I can get to hanging out with you guys a little bit more, showing off what I'd like to do. But yeah, this is just uh I don't know. It's hard work but necessary. Let me just move this a little bit more. Okay. See, I wanted to get in at this. Oh, gives your fingers quite the workout. I don't know. I'm just being uber thorough. Oh, that's a hard one.

[00:09:48]Yeah, got to use this thing. All right.

[00:09:50]Well, we'll leave that for now. But what I want to do, just show you this was all covered with ferns, as you guys know, and I ripped it all out. We already filled up the the X1130 and uh dumped out most of the vegetation that I pulled. But uh I think this will be nice. These will grow up, get bushy.

[00:10:10]Hopefully these take We've got the overflow for the pond right here. Okay, that's the overflow for Sophia's pond.

[00:10:18]Boop. Comes right out there. And um yeah, this was pretty uh labor intensive morning, but the L47 helped me pull out one of the clumps of grass that was in here nicely enough. Uh but I'm pretty psyched. Now what I got to do, come on over here. We got uh you know, this camp would not function without my friend Greg Woodstock and Ed the pond professor and everybody like Brian and everybody over there at Aquacape. What I noticed the other day, let me see my knife. Got my little knife here. The other day I was trying to turn on my circulation pump for Freda's pond, the skimmer, and I noticed there was a code on the on the control unit, and it pretty much meant the control unit was fried. So, what we're going to do, we're going to swap this sucker out and then we'll turn on Oh, look, there's Diego.

[00:11:11]We'll turn on the skimmer because I like to turn that on for a couple hours a day just to pull out some of the detrus that falls to the bottom and get some of the bamboo leaves that fall on the top. But look at the size of that alicasia. This popped up itself. Okay, this just showed up itself and I mean this is so cool.

[00:11:32]This is like Jurassic Park cool. This is prehistoric jungle foliage and um I planted the same variety over there.

[00:11:41]It'd be nice if it liked where it was and it did something like this. I mean, look at that. That's just incredible, huh? We got the tree fern doing well.

[00:11:49]We've got the iris doing well, the Louisiana iris, of course, the giant bamboo and the seab breeze bamboo. But yeah, the whole place, you know, the the goal is to to create the ultimate reptile habitat and garden. And I think we're going for it. Oh, but let me show you. So, good old good old friends.

[00:12:10]Optapes the best. Keeping me keeping me rolling along here. Let's just do this.

[00:12:20]There we go.

[00:12:24]And then we'll just simply pull this thing off.

[00:12:30]There you go. Smart pump receiver. Now these these receivers you can actually get the app the Aquacape app and you are able to control them via your smartphone which I think is another fantastic thing. Let me just put you guys down. There you go.

[00:12:50]Oh, that's beautiful. Yeah. So you can control it with your phone. Again, really cool stuff.

[00:12:58]And it looks like I do need my screwdriver. I need to go get my um screw gun. Don't go anywhere.

[00:13:07]All right, I'm back. Here I am. Have no fear. Cannon is here. All right, let's just do this real quick. All right, that was easy enough. So, we're just going to simply We need to remove that one. I'll leave that there for now. I think some water had infiltrated it. But now we'll get this one back on like that.

[00:13:37]Let's do this.

[00:13:42]There we go. That's a mess.

[00:13:46]Let's plug this sucker in.

[00:13:50]Now, let's see.

[00:13:53]That goes to there.

[00:13:59]Oh, yeah. That's the one. All right, guys. Moment of truth.

[00:14:08]Okay, let's turn it up. And then the simplest step next is we just connect this to this. And we should have Yeah, we got some pump flow. All right. Again, thank you to Trevor at Aquacape. He's my go-to guy. And I of course am Aquacapes crash test dummy. We have so many Aquacape ecosystem ponds here that they like to send me some of their new materials, some of their new products cuz I test them uh in a realworld 247 application. Here at Camp Canon, we don't really have a winner. Although, you know, I've been complaining about this winter, but we don't get ice. And basically, you don't have to shut the pumps down. They run 247 days a week uh through, you know, just all kinds of environmental conditions, heat, um humidity, all that stuff. So, I am constantly, uh, you know, helping them out figure and troubleshoot and do all kinds of things. Here we go. So, now we've got the skimmer going for a little while. That's going to pull in some of the detrious. I'll lift the basket out and it'll be all dialed in. So, yay me.

[00:15:27]Very exciting. I'll come back later.

[00:15:29]I'll snip that good old uh Oh, this is an adapter. Very cool. I'll snip the um zip tie holding the old one on and dial in the uh cords.

[00:15:41]By the way, how about it, friends? Little Mexican box turtles happily relaxing in the humidity. It's been nice and rainy and they've been out uh just doing great.

[00:15:52]So, that's fantastic.

[00:15:55]That's good news. All right. Oh my gosh.

[00:15:59]I love it. Just a good solid work day.

[00:16:03]Look at that. Kabotas everywhere. Life is good, friends. Let's keep it going.

[00:16:10]Let's see. What I was thinking next is I want to check in on those little emoda and maybe get the snake necks out and move them. Oh, hold on. Sorry.

[00:16:24]Sorry, guys. I'm all over the place.

[00:16:29]Just put this back in the mobile workstation there. I love that machine.

[00:16:33]That thing is the R TVX130 is just invaluable here. It does so many jobs and all of them make life easier. Okay, let's go have a look. Hope I haven't checked over here, so hopefully there's no horror in the nursery.

[00:16:55]Here we go.

[00:16:57]Let's have a look.

[00:17:00]Who's out there? Where are my little buddies? Hey, little buddies. I don't see anyone.

[00:17:08]I see snake necks.

[00:17:11]Wow, there are the snake necks. Snake necks.

[00:17:16]Where's my little Ah, there they are. Here's one. There's two.

[00:17:23]Oh, yeah. Oh, we do have one died. Oh, no. One's upside down dead. This happens, guys. Remember, reptiles.

[00:17:32]What a bummer.

[00:17:35]Look at this.

[00:17:37]Oh, what happened to you?

[00:17:40]This is failure to thrive, guys. This thing wasn't nibbled on, but you can see the yolk area wasn't as closed as these guys. So, that's kind of a bummer, huh, friends? But like I said, it's to be expected. Here's another one. There's another little guy. See, this is why you check in on them. But again, this Oh, look at this. Oh, no.

[00:18:06]This one's no good either. This guy didn't make it again. Look, his yolk wasn't absorbed.

[00:18:12]That's a bummer. Like I said, though, that's why I'm checking, right? I want to see what the status of these little guys is. And that's why reptiles have so many babies because there are in fact mortalities.

[00:18:29]So, that's what happened. Two little babies didn't make it. And like I said, you can see there's been no bites on them. So, it's not aggression from the other enclosure mates. It's just nature, man. These guys were basically meant to be food in the wild. They would have been eaten or they would have died and gone back into the food web. So, what I'll do is I'll just put them over here uh in the compost and let them kind of go back to nature here. There you go. Kind of a bummer. I knew I knew it's with babies, you got to also, you know, you have to expect that.

[00:19:04]Okay. Um, I'm very realistic. You know that on this channel, I give you the straight deal. But what I was also coming over here for was I wanted to see I'm not quite sure I want to do this. I was thinking about it, but I just don't think that it's time. I was thinking about putting these guys out in front, but I think I'm going to wait even longer. I want to get them bigger.

[00:19:25]They're so cool, aren't they? The snake necks. I freaking love snake necks. I love the snake necks. Snake snake necks.

[00:19:33]All right. Sometimes I whistle when I speak. All right. There you go. Let's go back over to where we've been working.

[00:19:44]Look at that. Very cool, huh? I'm going to get that irrigation put back in. Just routed nice and cleanly. And let's pull the sump pump out. Couple of stragglers here.

[00:20:01]Get rid of that. But I don't know if you remember, there was just a huge amounts of fern here. Now it's clear, clean.

[00:20:07]We've got pond clearing up just in the few hours we've been working. We're going to pull out the sump pump right now.

[00:20:17]Pull that sucker out.

[00:20:25]It's a heavy pump.

[00:20:27]Woo! That bear's a heavy pump.

[00:20:34]All right.

[00:20:41]Well, I'm pleased because a lot of work was done in the last 24 hours and uh certainly in the last few hours you guys spent with me. So, now I can plant it out. We're waiting for this uh bamboo here, weaver's bamboo that's going to block off the house, so we won't we'll have like a little tunnel here, but you won't be able to see it from the driveway. It'll cover the house nicely.

[00:21:08]Radiated tortoises are quite happy as I've been throwing all the leaves and little cactus that I pulled up out of the rock garden. They're nibbling away happily.

[00:21:23]Just tremendous amounts of work done. I love it. Oh, I got to move this. Pull some of that out. But yeah, we got to get the power washer back. We got to just get all that back and then it's time to just relax and enjoy the camp.

[00:21:42]Clean water.

[00:21:44]I do this about a You really need to do a good solid clean on your Aquacape ecosystem once a year here in Florida.

[00:21:51]Sometimes two, but a good proper wash once a year. Uh we've got lots of animals that utilize this space. We've got a lot of environmental factors and I just love keeping up with the gifts that I have been given. All right, there you go friends. Don't forget to go to patreon.com for more behindthescenes action with me from the camp and I will talk to you all again really really soon. See you later, guys.