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My name is Calvin Robinson and I am a 24 year employee of the U.S. Government. I graduated from North Carolina State University with a degree from the School of Forest Resources in Recreation Resources Administration. I have concentrations in Natural Resource Management and Interpretation. I hold a Federal law enforcement certification, a federal investigations certification, and certifications with social security as a service representative and a claims representative. I have an active interest in many areas, including Small group ministry and bible study, photograpy, woodworking, shooting, genetics,travel, antique tractors, NASCAR, all sports, nature, cooking (yes I am a closet Martha Stewart fan, what a babe LOL!) and just relationships with people of all types. My favorite quote is from an unknown source, "preach the gospel everyday, use words if you have to". In November 2007 I completed a 2 year term as vice-president of my county beekeeping association and now president of that organization as of November 2008. I have three daughters, Sierra is 20, Meredith is 19 and Mackenzie is 14.
One of our dogs, Gidget, is a Jack Russell Terrier that thinks she is our youngest daughter. Gidget, in general, understands most everything we talk about. Our newest small dog is a variation on Jack Russell with a dominate gene for chocolate. YOU MUST keep all Chocolate out of reach of him! He is a Snack Russell Named Tucker. The other dog, the Boxer named Lola that is emotionally needy, was adopted out to a good home where she can live inside as she so loves. She would get inside of your body if she could. Lola was followed by our newest large dog, a boxer named Bryliegh. Our first fainting goat, Boomhauer, was killed by a neighbor's roaming dog. We still have his brother, Bowser, as our current buck fainting goat and we found him a temporary mate. We are looking for some female fainters for our herd. Bowser seems to like his new mate, a pygmy named Paisley.
We all love to camp. The girls love my special breakfast scramble and demand it when we go camping. I am the griller, but Sierra is beginning to get the hang of that too. Meredith is the best cook in the kitchen, but Mackenzie is also getting the hang of that. We love to eat out. All of us love Mexican, and all but Sierra love Chinese. I love Italian as well.
Me at Bristol speedway
Camping is so laid back
We love to camp, but it is hard on us because as you know smoke follows beauty.
Sierra
You WILL pay for this!
Turtle turtle (Red Eared Sliders)
Me and Mackenzie at the campsite
This is better than flood insurance
Meredith seems very pleased with her Tennessee Christmas
What? I am just standing guard!
Meredith in blue hat, with grandmother and friends camping
BUSTED! What Lola does when no one is around.
Boomhauer the fainting goat. Click on photo for fainting goat website and video of fainting.
There has to be a squirrel in here somewhere.
Lola our lovable boxer
From the time we first put up the tree, Lola has liked to stick her head in it. STRANGE!
If only I were not bronze!
Our chickens when they were babies
First trip to Carter-Finley Stadium for Sierra
First playhouse I built
Night time snow fall at sourwood knoll
Gidget really thinks she is our youngest child
Second playhouse I built
Gidget following Boomhauer around
Mackenzie got to meet Frank Bielec from Trading Spaces show and took him a jar of her prize winning honey
Mackenzie in our house with an observation hive I was preparing to use in a demonstration
From the back forward: me and Bethany, her parents, our children
Mackenzie and Meredith at Looking Glass Falls in the Pisgah National Forest
Frank signed a floor tile for Mackenzie
Boomer, Meredith and Gidget
Our cat Taffy likes her belly rubbed.
Boomer has that look in his eye that says no more photos
Dusk brought out a buck, two does and two fawns at Sourwood knoll on this day. Sometimes we have as many as 18 dear in our field
Traditional mountain cabin style playhouse during construction
Meredith before photo
Meredith after photo
(Just kidding Mer, you know we love your sense of humor)
Looking Glass Falls in the Pisgah National Forest is a really beautiful place and right beside the road too!
Mere jumps into a REALLY cold swimming hole down stream from Looking Glass Falls in the Davidson river
Mere and Kenzie gasp in the cold water while trying to get friend Elena to join them
Mere and friend Kati wander aimlessly in river
Mackenzie at NC Mountain State Fair
View from my parents front porch. They live across the hollow from Sourwood Knoll. Not surprisingly neither end of the rainbow seems to point to the pot of gold on our property.
Mackenzie's honey was produced early in the Sourwood season and is dark because of some Sumac mixed in.
It still tastes
like Sourwood but the red color of sumac makes it dark.
North
Carolina
Mountain
State Fair
2005
Honey
Judging
Competition
Mackenzie
won 3rd
prize in
dark
extracted
honey
The 3 jars
above
the ^
are hers
^
I was robbed! Look at all this smoke!
It was a long hard day, now comes NAP TIME!
You go dad! You are really smokin em now!
Lettem laugh at my little smoker, I am fixin to shuttem up!
All my efforts were for nothing, as first prize went to the lady on the left. (Locust honey was 1st prize, my 2nd prize was a bag of pine needles for smoker fuel)
Over 5 minutes later, I still have a pretty good smoke going with my little smoker that could. (note, my smoker is the smallest one in the bunch. It is true that size does not matter, at least in smokers)
As you can see, I got off to a huge lead in the contest
When me and the dogs are not napping, I like to hang around beekeeping stuff. Here is the smoker contest at the 2005 Buncombe County beekeeper field day
(Note to self: next time bring bigger smoker and smaller belly)
Looks like I would have been in the running if we had held a belly contest.
Mackenzie making a new friend. I know this is fowl play!
Nephew Kyle enjoys competition in triathlons and running races. Kyle recently completed the Louisville Ford Ironman event. He had to swim 2.4 miles in up the Ohio River, get out and bike over 112 miles and then run a 26.2 mile marathon. Whew!
Kyle gets ready for the first leg of the Biltmore Lake Triathlon race
The first leg of the Biltmore Lake Triathlon is a 700 meter swim in ENKA Lake
The second leg of the Triathlon is a 12 mile bike ride which Kyle is finishing here
Kyle finishes the last leg, a 5 Kilometer run, and finished 2nd in his class in less than an hour and a half.
After he got used to us, I was able to hold him without protection.
Smoke meets Louise. Quills vs. Claws. Actually they did not tangle. In part Louise was intimidated by what we call the "Brow of Doom". This is when Smoke extends his quills down in front of his eyes when he senses danger.
Mackenzie realized a life long dream this Christmas when she finally got a horse. Look at this face when she opened up her new saddle.
Mackenzie and Pumpkin. They look like a real pair for sure.
Pumpkin is a wild mustang that has a very good temperment. Mackenzie is a wild child with somewhat questionable temperment at times.
We had Smoke out the other night and something got to him a bit. We had never seen him do this before...going...
GOING...
GONE!
Well, mostly anyway. Sometimes I wish I could do that. I guess this could be called the ball of doom.
Mackenzie's first FREE RIDE on Pumpkin!
Tucker, our youngest "Snack" Russell Terrier, in his 2007 class photo.
The girls decided to decorate the raffle playhouse I built for the Buncombe County Beekeepers Chapter
They had a lot of fun with it placed down next to the road for the passersby to wonder about
The fog machine gave the scene a nice halloween touch
Mackenzie gave out candy treats
Mere hung around looking like a stoner while helping out
Nectar Collector Day at the WNC Nature Center was a lot of fun. No one had any honey for sale, due to the spring freeze, but I did take some bees wax. I had the unique multicultural cross continental experience of meeting a rather interesting Scotsman visiting the area.
He spotted my bees wax and was delighted as he had been unable to find bees wax in the quantity he needed to wax his didgeridoo. I was a little afraid to ask. I know about the Kilts and the stuff that goes along with what a Scotsman wears under the Kilt, but there is only so much a hillbilly red neck is required to know. I was fortunate enough to have expert description of a didgeridoo by our
own Buncombe County Beekeeper Chapter President, Janet Shisler.
She described it as the aboriginal Australian musical instrument that makes the (Sorry, I cant figure out how to write down how she did the sound)
"wwwwonnnoowwwwoonnnnnngg" sound. I had seen Crocodile Dundee, in my previous multicultural experiences of a hillbilly red neck, and knew what that sound was.
Then my next question is WHAT a Scotsman is doing playing a didgeridoo instead of Bag Pipes? Well, he seemed to think it is normal, so I was just happy with a good sale and a happy customer with a great sounding didgeridoo.
Next question, will the airport security people believe it is bees wax for a didgeridoo or think it is C-4 and blow it up? For the sake of the poor Scotsman's didgeridoo, lets hope they take a good sniff of the sweet smell of fresh bees wax and know what that is.
By the way, I talked to the Scotsman awhile and loved his great accent. I asked how you play a didgeridoo and he said you have to breathe out and in at the same time. I thought about that statement a second and figured no wonder they call it a didgeridoo!
I said, "it sounds like you have to sort of get into a zone while playing a didgeridoo, maybe to the point you hallucinate just a bit?" He shot back in a thick Scottish accent with a quick "you got it". You should
have been there!
By the way, I sold the first raffle tickets for the bee school fund raiser playhouse.
