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Hello! First let me thank you for visiting the Shade Tree Exotics website! My name is Jeremy Pierce and I
am a hobbyiest breeder from the great state of Kansas!

Growing up I had all sorts of animals as pets. Guinea pigs, hamsters, dogs, cats, and tropical fish all
spent time at my house. Somewhere along the line my interests turned from furry to scaly. I can vaguely
remember visiting a local pet shop when I was around eight or nine years old. The only thing that I can
really remember is that the snake I ended up holding that day was an incredibly beautiful orange. Looking
back on it now I’m sure that it was a corn snake, but at the time it didn’t matter. That one snake hooked
me.

Growing up I spent a lot of time on my grandparent’s farm. Another one of my earliest herp memories (life
memory for that matter) was riding on the lawn mower with my Grandpa. We were putting around just passing
the old storm cellar when grandpa stopped the lawn mower and told me to go inside and get a pitcher.
Thinking that grandpa was thirsty I ran in and told Grandma. She reached into the refrigerator and grabbed
out a pitcher. I took it outside and handed it to grandpa. He poured out the iced tea and reached down and
picked up the biggest toad I had ever seen at the time! Needless to say Grandma wasn’t thrilled with
Grandpa at the fact that he had put a toad in her pitcher. That toad seemed to be the size of softball!

As I grew older when we would go to visit my grandparents, my two brothers, my sister and I would go out
at night and gather up toads and leopard frogs by the dozens (letting them all go of course). We would
look at our parents and grandparents and say that we were going "toad hunting". Toad hunting became a
ritual, and something that I looked forward to every time we went to the farm. This leads to the moment
where snakes became very important to me.

In the pasture just east of the farmhouse, there was a spring fed creek. When it rained heavily the creek
would fill and flow to a bridge that adjoined the south pasture to the east. One day my brothers and I,
seeing tadpoles by the millions, devised a plan to catch some tadpoles without having to get in with the
herd of cattle that were drinking from the hole. We took a steel bucket (I’m not sure if we were supposed
to use that one or not, sorry Grandpa) and tied some bailing twine to it. We sat on the bridge dangling
the bucket down into the water and pulling up when we would see a tadpole in it. After three or four pulls
we decided to haul the bucket up. What happened next was pretty unbelievable but I swear its true and I
will never forget it. With the bucket halfway up, the water was churning strangely. All three of us looked
in and low and behold a red, black and white snake rolled in the water! We dropped the bucket and ran back
to the farmhouse to tell everyone. Of course Grandpa told us it was a tiger snake and then let out a
little chuckle. I was very curious as to what it really was, and when we got home I found out that it was
Central Plains Milk. From then on all that I wanted was reptiles!

Growing up I discovered that my Dad had a great fear of snakes. So while I wasn’t allowed to have snakes
while living with my parents (its okay dad, I understand now!) I did have many other herps. My first was a
hatchling snapping turtle named Tiny. I had him for several years and even did a 4-H presentation with him
that won me state champion in the reptile and amphibian category. He was an excellent learning experience.
Next was a Tokay gecko (do you see a pattern developing here?). Oh what a beautiful animal! Oh what an
attitude! I enjoyed him for several years as well. Next was pure insanity. I talked my parents into a
Golden Tegu! It ended up being four foot of nastiness that would bite, claw, and whip at the first chance
it got! Oh the things we do when we are young!

My first snake came the summer after I graduated high school. It was a Colombian boa that I bought from
the local pet store. She was beautiful! I had waited my whole life to have her. Unfortunately (or as it
would turn out, fortunately) I didn’t wait until I had moved out of my parents house to get her. Of course
my dad wasn’t pleased with the fact that there was a snake in his basement, so it had to go. They had a
friend out at work that had a couple of snakes that agreed to watch my snake for me until I went to
college. I am forever grateful to him for that. I am also grateful to him for introducing to me someone
who is now one of my best friends and someone whom I respect and value his opinion to no end, Jud
McClanahan. He has been a great friend to me and has answered endless amounts of questions over the past
fifteen years. Without his selfless advice, knowledge, and friendship I am sure that I wouldn’t be where I
am at today! Thank you Jud, for befriending a kid years ago that most normally might not have!

This brings me to the most important person in my life. I started dating this gorgeous little red head
named Carrie. She was nice, outgoing, and most of all seemed to like me without me trying to be someone
else. Oddly enough one of the first dates that we went on was to a reptile expo. It was myself, Jud, and
this beautiful little red head on our way to an expo (life just doesn’t get much better!). Walking around
the expo I stopped at a table to look at some Pueblan milks. The breeder had about five hatchlings to a
cup. Of course as soon as the lid was opened there were baby Pueblans jumping out of the cup. I grabbed
two, the breeder grabbed one, and Carrie grabbed the other two. I looked at her and honestly thought to
myself, this is the girl that I am going to marry! She later told me that that was the first time she had
ever touched a snake! I definitely had to marry this girl! Well as fate would have it, I now call her my
wife!

So that is, in brief, the story of my herpetological life. All of this has led to S.T.E. I am a hobbyiest
breeder however I take great pride in my animals and strive to produce the highest quality possible.

In the summer of 2003, Carrie and I were blessed with a big beautiful baby boy! He is the most amazing
thing! Of course his nursery is adorned with snakes hanging from the curtain rods. He also has a rattle
that is a snake! I’m working on the snake flash cards now! All kidding aside being a parent has been more
amazing and fun than I could have ever imagined!

I would like to thank my wife Carrie for her love and support of this time consuming and large commitment.
YOU ARE AMAZING! Also thanks to my parents for your support. I am the luckiest son on the planet to have
parents so caring. And last but by no means least, thank you to my Grandpa for giving me some of my most
cherished childhood memories.

4-23-05: Hello everyone. It has been a while since this was written so I thought that I would give it a
little update.

All is going well with STE and my family. My son is growing leaps and bounds and is just a sponge. He now
comes into the snake room to "help" daddy clean the snakes. He of course has to hold his everytime that we
are there. I kept an Applegate San Diego that hatched out on the same day he was born for him. It is
amazing in that this snake was pretty fiesty for the first year of its life, and then about the time my
son was ready to start holding snakes she calmed right down. I guess she just new she had a little boy to
impress!

10-28-05: Carrie and I are proud to announce the arrival of our daughter Carley! She is a pretty little
thing that will have daddy wrapped around her finger in no time i'm sure! Girls can play with herps too!

Thank you again to those that have purchased from S.T.E. I truly hope that your animals are everything
that you had hoped them to be.

1-28-07: It has been too long since I have put an update here! All is well with myself and the family.
Gage is a big help feeding and cleaning the mice as well as the baby snakes. Carley just pet her first
snake about a month ago (L.g. splendida) and seems to have no fear. I have been doing more shows this past
year than I have ever done, and Carrie has been wonderfully supportive of me being gone for a day or two
at a time. I can't wait for the day when Gage and Carley are old enough to want to go to a show and stay
with me all day! What a proud moment that will be! All in all life is good and I can't complain about much
of anything!

11-02-07: Hello everyone! Great and exciting news from Kansas. Carrie and I have purchased a small 2.5
acre farm! We have wanted to be in the country for some time now and the perfect place came along. The
snakes will have their own building which will allow me to expand my collection. I see more Drymarchon in
my future and of course there's always a pit that I have my eye on. The kids are very excited as now we
get to have chickens and goats as well as the snakes! I look forward to sunsets on the back porch,
sunrises on the front porch and roasting marshmallows with the kids around the fire pit! Oh and of course
a beautiful clear country night time sky. Life is good and family is well. My best to all and take care.

12-16-07:Hello everyone. Well, we just survived the worst ice storm that I have ever personally seen or
been thru (directly followed by a foot of snow!). It took quite a toll on our trees and we were without
power for 5 days. I had the presence of mind to shut down the hibernaculum in the garage and bring all of
my breeders to the basement, but I didn't expect the power to be out as long as it did. On day two, the
snake room was getting dangerously cold. To the rescue came my number one buddy Jud! He was lucky enough
to not have lost power in town to his animals and had a generator that he brought out to me for the snake
room! Thank you thank you thank you Jud! I just finished going thru all of the snakes and everyone looks
no worse for the wear. All of the breeders are now back in the hibernaculum. Hopefully brumation has not
been disrupted too much and we will still see a great spring! Lord knows I'm ready for spring!

3-29-08:Hello eveyone! Breeding season is here! It is funny how this time of year gets me so pumped! I am
reminded of how much I enjoy this hobby. When the snakes are in brumation, its a nice break for a couple
of weeks, but after that it seems like an eternity until I get to enjoy them again. I just got hammered by
my hypo bull female last night! My thumb is sore and good! About every 6 months one of them reminds me to
wake up at feeding time! All is well here. I plan on starting the snake building in a couple of months. I
will start the rodent room next month. Spring is here though it doesn't feel like it yet. Gage just had
his first soccer game and the KC Royals Jersey I had on was not taking care of the 40 degrees and 17 mile
per hour wind! Next week is supposed to be nice though. I forsee grilling on the west porch as the sun
sets, listening to a Royals game, and sippping a beer while the kids are playing on the trampoline. Sounds
like Mayberry bliss to me!

5-11-08:Hey everyone! Spring is in full swing. Lots of rain and wind so far this year. That's okay, the
grass and trees are green and the family is healthy. We raised up some chicks for our flock of chickens
and they are now in with the "big kids". I think our goal once these start laying is to have an Auracauna
only flock. They are a beautiful chicken that are great layers (generally one a day) and lay big green
eggs! The kids have fun with them though I don't think as much as me. Its nice to be able to supply you
and all of your relatives with eggs. Especially with the prices of everything going crazy. We are trying
to figure out what kind of animal we want in our little pasture. We've thought about goats, sheep, pigs,
or even a cow or two. Anyway we go will be a learning lesson for the kids as the end result is to provide
food for our family.

There are lots of snake eggs laid with many more to come. I am very excited about a couple of the new bull
breedings and really hoping for another Sunrise bull this year! The little Sunrise male from last year is
really nice looking and I can't wait to build on his genetics. Next season I would say that he should be
ready to go. My black pines laid 5 eggs for me. This was the first time that I'd bred this species so I am
pretty happy with them!

9-28-08:Hello everyone. Well the 2008 season is winding down. I have had some great animals this year. I
hatched out 1.2 sunrise bulls this year so I am very excited about that! The highlight had to be that I
finally got to return to Daytona! I got to go with two good buddies Jud McClanahan and John Stolz. I got
to meet some people that I had been in contact with for year and finally got to put faces to voices! Of
course I told myself that I wasn't going to come home with anything, yeah right! We ended up helping
another friend Don Soderberg out on his tear down and of course one can't hang out with Don and his
beautiful corns for any length of time without seeing something that you can't live without. I picked up
some nice male red bulls to introduce some new blood to the sunrise project as well.

Winter is rapidly approaching so Gage and I are cutting and stacking as much wood as we can. We are
praying for the winter to not be quite the nasty that 2007 was. On the plus side we have plenty of fire
wood for this year! Well, I thank everyone for their purchases this year and truly hope that they are what
you had hoped for. Take care everyone!

12-06-08: Hope everyone is doing well. Well, the economy has finally started to drop here in the midwest.
Things are a little scary and uncertain. With that, I have made the hard decision to cut back a little
bit. I will be letting go some of my adult animals. Also I will not be breeding all of the bulls this
year. There will be a good number of females that get the year off. Hang in there everybody!

1-10-09: Hello everyone. Brumation is about midway thru for me. I was very late in getting the animals in
this year, but I'm not worrying about it. I am going to attempt to breed the first Sunrise bull male this
year back to his mother and to a couple of other girls. I am looking forward to that clutch for sure. I am
very excited about a pair of Sunrise's produced last year. They are incredible looking, even better than
the original and from a different pairing. I hope that everyone is doing well with the economy the way it
is. We are doing fine and still enjoying the country. Our flock of chickens are cranking out eggs daily.
We hope to add some goats and possibly a pair of Dexter cattle to our farm in the next year. I also have a
line on some Golden Pheasants. If you have never seen these before you wont believe your eyes. They are
incredible. We'll see!

7-19-09: Well my first clutch has hatched but to say that this has been a good year would be inaccurate.
Fertility was very low this year and I take full responsibility for that. I was late getting the kids into
brumation and took them out early in hopes that they had been cold enough long enough. Apparently I was
wrong. Oh well, I'm not going to get down. I still have a job and my family is healthy. The snakes are
going to be in SUPREME condition this year as I didn't even try to breed half of them. Their weight is
awesome and I have a bunch of new pairings that should go next season. I was able to hang out with what
has become a second family to me at the KC Reptile Show last weekend. Jud McClanahan, John and Joanie
Stolz, and Travis Whisler and I had a great time. Jason and Kelli Cruze have really worked hard to build
this show and it shows. It has grown to the largest show around in just a few years. Jud, John, Travis and
I will be heading to Daytona in a few short weeks for some good times. My new favorite phrase...."God is
great, beer is good, and people are crazy." Take care everyone!

8-27-09: Daytona was a great time! Jud and I took off on Friday the 21st and met up with John Stolz,
Travis Wistler, and Don Soderberg at the hotel that evening. I haven't laughed that hard in a long time!
The show was good. Lots of nice animals and the prices were crazy low on most. I'm definately not
regretting my decision to give a lot of the girls last year off! I picked up a nice pair of mex mex
kingsnakes. I was eyeballing the granites at Mark and Kim Bells table last year and low and behold at the
end of the day on Saturday I saw the ONE the they had. She is very nice with very little red and a nice
shattered pattern. I also picked up a super nice normal male to go with her. I passed on some KILLER
thayeri, but I think that standing next to those for five minutes combined with getting the mex mex was
enough to infect me with the mexicana bug! I definately see more in my future.

I did make one crazy good sunrise this year and oh yeah.....the two headed bull! He is doing well. Not
wanting to eat on his own, which doesn't shock me, but he is eating assist fed mouse tails just fine. It's
been a rough year for the family with myself and Carrie having a few too many hospital visits but all of
us now seem to be healthy. All is well and I am ready for fall!

Take care all!

Jeremy