Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's day to Brandi, Grandma and Nana!

Mazie's Photoshoot

Mazie tried to get Mommy and Daddy to hold still but we wouldn't. She's getting pretty good with color, composition AND lighting.

10 Toed Leopard Bunny

I almost forgot this "Easter" photo.

Belated Easter Photos

I know this will not go over well with most, if not all, grandparents... But we have no nice Easter photos to share. Grandma provided wonderful dresses and our camera went on digital vacation.

This is all we have from easter - maybe we'll get the girls to wear their dresses and hats on another Sunday.

Happy Birthday Brandi!

Today Brandi is 29, Yay!

This is a photo of us in the near future.

Spring Time in Charles City

Spring is my favorite time of the year. WOO!

All of the trees and flowers are blooming and getting ready to pollenate everything.

I heard recently that the pollen count in Georgia has increased by like 800% since last spring. Goodness!

i hope that isn't going to be the case for Virginia.

Brandi and i are "planning to, think about, getting ready for" a garden this summer. it's a big time commitment especially when our farm helpers are 2 and 4 years old.

anyhoo, we may get some tomatoes and spinach from the ordeal - mmmm spinach.

Princess Party!

We threw a Princess Party for Lucy, Vivian and Mazie (all born within a week of each other) and it was fun. After a game of pin the horn on the unicorn the Princess Squad and the lone Sir Simon (age 3 who was completely surrounded by the Princesses) had cake and ice cream.

Later, we tried to suppress their sugar high with dinner and sleepy time.

Today, Vivian is 2 and Mazie is 4.

Happy Birthday Girls!

Artwork

Moi Milky Pease!

Vivian Faye Gunn
age 1 year, 11 months.




Rainbow Flower

Anna Mazie Gunn
age: 2 years, 11 months.

Happy Birthday Dad!

I remember my dad best on the football field. He always had his shirt tucked in, whistle around his neck and a baseball cap bearing the name of our team pressing down on his thick dark hair. Everyone listened when Coach Gunn was talking, partly because he was so big, but mostly because he treated us like young men. He had arms like oak trees, calves the size of footballs and his back was broad like a billboard. When he talked everyone listened. My dad coached us in football and baseball. He took us to the batting cages and even built a tackling dummy machine in our back yard for us to practice, while other kids were watching TV and playing video games.

My dad spent as much time with us as he could, especially while working around the house. He has taught Kye and me how to work hard every day. I believe he really tried to do for us what his dad couldn't or wouldn't do for him. His dad wouldn't watch him play high school football games - even though he was a star athlete.

Now that i have kids of my own i understand completely the importance of spending time with them and being a big part of their lives.

Thanks Dad. Happy Birthday!

More photos from Thanksgiving

nana? where's your hat?

minus the airport-like security staff, the atlanta aquarium was nice. dad was upset because they wouldn't let him bring in his rod and reel. i don't think that whale shark would fit above the fireplace and it probrably tastes like salty catfish.


oh, if you haven't already, check out our tv show website:

www.newredneckworkshop.com

click on the 2 minute trailer and see a preview, we have complete episodes on the way.

richie

Oh, Happy New Year!

shady characters in the shade.
wait, is that ricky bobby or cousin brent?


i know it's late for a new year greeting...

here are some photos from last year i thought y'all might enjoy.

we are doing fine thank you very much:
Brandi is preparing her brain for med school which may be a couple of years into the future
and i'm getting ready to lay out by the pool as soon as she becomes a doctor. and i might
home-school the girls (in the fine art of swan dives and cannon balls) if Brandi makes it to doctor-hood? you probrably think i'm joking...

Even More Thanksgiving Photos

Vivian didn't care too much for this particular photo shoot.

More Thanksgiving Photos

Sneak Attack!



hey y'all go to www.newredneckworkshop.com and watch the 2 minute trailer for my upcoming t.v. show. we will soon be wrapping up production on several episodes and you'll be able to see them online.

Thanksgiving Photos - Finally!

mazie and vivian had fun playing at Nana and Poppie's house.

i think it's very sweet that they call him Poppie.

Happy Birthday Mom!

I did a little research on Cabbagetown for you. And because i don't have any recent photos of the girls. so check it out. This is from wikkipedia...

History

The Atlanta Rolling Mill was destroyed after the Battle of Atlanta and on its site the Fulton Bag and Cotton Mill began operations in 1881 and Cabbagetown was built as the surrounding mill town and was the first textile processing mills built in the south. Its primary product was cotton bags for packaging agricultural products. Built during a period when many industries were relocating to the post-Reconstruction South in search of cheap labor, it opened shortly following the International Cotton Exposition, which was held in Atlanta in an effort to attract investment to the region. The mill was owned and operated by Jacob Elsas, a German Jewish immigrant. Its work force consisted of poor whites recruited from the Appalachian region of north Georgia. Elsas built a small community of one and two-story shotgun houses and cottage-style houses surrounding the mill. Like most mill towns, the streets are extremely narrow with short blocks and lots of intersections. At its height the mill employed 2,600 people. A protracted strike in 1914-15 failed to unionize the factory's workforce. For over half a century Cabbagetown remained home to a tight-knit, homogenous, and semi-isolated community of people whose lives were anchored by the mill, until it closed in 1977. Afterwards, the neighborhood went into a steep decline which didn't end until Atlanta's intown renaissance of the mid-1990s. The mill itself was named to the National Register of Historic Places in 1976.

Rebirth

Today Cabbagetown is an area of tremendous growth sparked by Panorama Ray who operated a photo gallery on the main drag, Carroll Street. Since his death in 1997, Carroll Street has become the home of some nice restaurants and makes a great people-watching spot. Beginning in 1996, the mill itself has been renovated into the nation’s largest residential loft community—the Fulton Cotton Mill Lofts—which houses everyone from artists and musicians to business professionals. Although the east building was nearly destroyed by a fire in April 1999, the Fulton Cotton Mill Lofts managed to open the following year.

The main festival is the Cabbagetown Reunion, known colloquially by long time residents and displaced residents as "the vegetable", which takes place in the summer. The Chomp and Stomp takes place in November.

You’ll also find popular restaurants like Agave and Six Feet Under (see listings) as well as the historic Oakland Cemetery, where many of Atlanta’s most famous residents, including Margaret Mitchell are buried.

Origins of the name

There are a few explanations as to how the neighborhood received its name. One is that the mostly transplanted poor Appalachian residents (largely of Scots-Irish descent) who worked in the nearby Fulton Rolling Mill, would grow cabbages in the front yards of their shot-gun houses, and one could distinctly smell the odor of cooking cabbage coming from the neighborhood. This term was used originally with derision by people outside the neighborhood, but it soon became a label of pride for the people who lived there.

Another explanation is that a train carrying a load of cabbages derailed by the mill adjacent to the neighborhood, and the poor residents quickly accumulated the cabbages, and used them in just about every meal. A variation of this legend has a Ford Model T taking a sharp turn at one of the main intersections of Cabbagetown, and flipping over spilling its cargo of cabbages across the street. Someone yelled "Free Cabbages!" and they were soon carted away by the residents.

Shirley Plantation

This is the kitchen.



This is the tool shed. All of the posts and beams were hand hewn.




This is the front yard, on the left is the tool shed, on the right is the ice/drying house, just beyond the ice house is the kitchen. In the distance is the main house. 2 other houses flanked this house 200 years ago. One house burned down and the other was moved up the river. All 3 houses were about the same size. That's alot of gutters to clean.

This plantation served as a hospital for union troops during the Civil War and it is rumored that Robert E. Lee was born here.

Halloween Photos

we went on a neighborhood hay ride and the girls loved it.
Vivian never let go of her chocolate bar and it melted down to her elbow.
she was a kangaroo and mazie was a bunny. brandi was a tree and i was myself.

Hello

as you can see i have been tinkering with some colors on this blog.

when i have more time i'll get this thing fixed and post more often - i promise.

i thought you guys might enjoy this photo of Vivian taken last year.

Picking Flowers

Mazie loves to pick flowers but doesn't like to get her hands wet or dirty.

Cowgirls