The D. Lewis Family

We are the youngest of the clan. This is the most recent photo we have, which was at the blessing of our newest family member. This photo also happens to include part of the Leonard Clan. We are on the left half and front; they are on the right and back.

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Our Service for Uncle Ronnie:

This one seemed to be an easy one for us. First of all, we need to go all the way back to April. We had two trees in our yard that needed to come down. One died because of and was slowly starting to break off in pieces with each storm that rolled through. The other one had ants (not termites) eating it from the inside out.

This is just one tree. And it's the small one!
Here's the huge one. Yeah, it's a monster!

You can see from the tree on the right that it was as wide as our 8yo son is tall!


These two trees were fairly massive, to be honest, and expensive. So we had the tree service men drop it and I was going to take care of it from there. Well, Uncle Ronnie, the amateur logger that he is, came and helped us cut up the tree into manageable rounds. It was an amazing bit of help and service. 

It just so happens that we do not have a fireplace or a wood stove. Hmmm... what to do with all of that wood? 

Well, it would have been easy enough to just give away the wood to families that need it for heating this winter. But that just didn't feel like it was enough. Sure it would save people hundreds of dollars, but it simply did not feel like service being provided. That's when I realized that the service was not in the providing of the wood, but in the preparation of the wood. 

So I got out the axe and the maul and I started whacking away. I even managed to get the kids involved in this. I chopped and they stacked. I either did not know or did not realize just how much work it was and couldn't do more than two hours of chopping at the time. 

When the local LDS Missionaries found out what I was doing, they asked if they could come help chop it as a morning workout. Needless to say, I was fine with that. 

In the end, as of Christmas day, we've almost got it all gone. Well more than half was chopped up by hand with axes and mauls. Here's a couple of pics of our work:
Chopping wood...

One of many truckloads...

Here's after we got rid of a lot of it...

This is about all we have left. I know, it still looks like a lot, but it's not!

We have even made a firepit from the stump!
So... how much wood was it? So far, we have loaded up up:
  • 2 Chevy S10s (compact pickup)
  • 4 Ford F250 Longbeds
  • 3 Chevy vans full
  • 5 12' trailers full
  • 3 small import trunk loads.
  • and a little bit more that I'm sure I've forgotten about.
To date, chopped wood has gone to assist 5 different families in their winter heating needs. 
So, Uncle Ronnie, thank you for inspiring me for insane amounts of non-aerobic exercise, a sore back, and literally tons of heavy lifting. 

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Our Service for Melanie
This one started as a very simple idea. Earlier this year, my sister and I were chatting and she said that my niece really wanted to have a Ravenclaw House Scarf (that's a Harry Potter reference, just in case anyone doesn't know...). Well, it just so happens that I knit. I'm a dude, and I knit. I'm totally fine with that. 

So, I knit her one. (I somehow managed to go all year and NOT snap a picture of that. How? I don't know.)

Well, I decided to make the day of a couple of other Harry Potter fans. Behold! 
It's Hufflepuff on the left and Gryffindor on the right
These are going to two other, unsuspecting geeks of the Harry Potter Fandom!
You may notice that one house is not represented. My answer is, "of course not! Why? Because... Slytherin!"
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Our Service for Uncle Austin

I have to admit, this was one of the toughest names that we had. No one in our family was in a position to go out and fight international terrorism, and there's only so much that we can do to fight against stupidity (both of which are things that are of particular concern to him). 

Well, we had something come up that is actually pretty sad. A close friend of our family has recently had to leave an abusive relationship. She has come to be concerned enough that she has chosen to purchase a gun and apply for a conceal carry permit (CCP).

While this does come with background checks and whatnot, it does not come with all kinds of extra little tidbits such as weapon selection for your needs, shooting stances, and (of course) cleaning your weapon properly.

I took it upon myself to get her all of this training. For obvious reasons, I will not post pictures of her or her sidearm, but I will post a picture of her practicing by helping to clean one of our pistols.
Learning about cleaner and oil...

Working on the barrel.









There is no better act of service that I could think to honor Uncle Austin than to teach guns and gun safety.
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Our Service for Aunt Stacy

Our beloved Aunt Stacy is the resident cancer survivor. Her tale is one that is epic and harrowing in its own right, even amongst cancer survivors. Her prognosis was beyond negative and, quite frankly, her treatment options were not only slim, it was a essentially a hail mary.

Countless prayers were answered and the hail mary turned into a touchdown. 

Obviously, the best act of service we could provide was to do something for cancer patients. Fortunately, my wife is a far superior knitter to me, and she whipped out 4 amazing "chemo caps".

Chemo caps are knit hats made specifically for cancer patients who have lost some or all of their hair. These four hats were made and donated to VCU Medical Center. 




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Service For Jacob

We came across this idea when one of Kat's former teachers posted on facebook that there was an American Indian reservation that she volunteers with/for that needed some donations of knit supplies. More specifically, she said that they needed mittens, because almost no one ever knits mittens.


Mia modeling one pair of mittens...
...with matching hat...
...and matching scarf!
Here's another pair of mittens.

These gloves are a little big.

I mean, shockingly big!


So once again we pulled out the yarn and needles and got to work... This time we (okay, realistically, Kat) produced multiple items for children on the Rez. We wanted to make sure that we provided some work for kids because as we talked about it, we wanted to make sure that they went to kids about Jacob's age. Now he can know that a few children his age are a little bit warmer.

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In the end...

This is something that was new for our family. Aunt Katherine came to us with this idea, and this was the first year we tried it. I do hope that we continue this. Moreover, I do hope that each of these projects is received with the same love in which they were considered and planned. 

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