Thanks for the suggestions, Seamus, but that just is not going to happen. I would have considered doing it that way if I thought I could, but the labor pool available around here just doesn't make that possible. We have a guy who has been working with us for 7 years now, and although a good conscientious worker, he could never really take over the business. Even if I thought there was a possible candidate here to do that, the risk would be way too great that someone else would run my good name into the ground before I could react to the damage being made. So I believe now, while SerpenCo has a great reputation, and a very good selection of desirable stock animals, is the time for me to make my exit and hopefully pad the retirement nest egg so Connie and I can live somewhat comfortably during retirement.
As for perhaps having different goals in 5 to 10 years, certainly maybe, but trust me when I say that someone 58 years old has a much different perspective about things then someone much younger. And no one who is younger can possible appreciate, perhaps even understand, this different perspective. I know I certainly did not. I never even considered that things I could do at 35 years of age without blinking an eye could have me popping pain pills at 58 just to be able to keep going. When you are younger, you take medications to get CURED from ailments. Later on in life, you take medications to just keep on going.
As far as keeping the "good stuff", well that's a lot like asking a girl to just get a little pregnant.
There is no such thing with live animals. If we have ANY live animals here, then we will not be able to take any trip longer than one week without finding someone to take care of those animals while we are gone. Which pretty much puts us right back where we are right now. Only we are now just limited to maybe three days for a trip. So a gain of just four days really doesn't gain us much.
What we REALLY want to do is to be able to just drive somewhere, ANYWHERE, without the worry of having to get back before something dies on us. Or worry about the dumb animals that might have crapped in their water dish an hour after we checked them before leaving.
Nope, we've just had enough. I've been keeping and breeding corn snakes since 1978. SerpenCo was created in 1985. I've been fortunate to discover new genes and named some cultivars which will carry over till after I am long gone. I've had my fun. No sense trying to drag this out till either Connie, myself, or both are bed ridden and then not ABLE to enjoy the rest of our lives.
Sooner or later, I believe most people will reach the point in their lives where they realize that they have been so busy making a living, that they aren't LIVING a living. That's where we are right now.
I think we need to know what these circles are, so if we find ourselves in one we are REALLY CAREFUL about what we say. After all when we start talking reptiles, you never know what is going to slip or where.
