Summer Storms

Storm Brewing

I love summer storms.  The air is thick with so many possibilities, so much so I feel heavy and weighed down at times.  Then the clouds gather and you know that shortly change is going to come.  The air will move again and the cool winds of clarity will blow in.

Several days of hot and humid, thick weather.  The rain has come, but the humid days returned.  Today it was rainy and finally it has cleared tonight. There is a cool mist that is rising from the beaver meadows and the valleys down below.  A certain clarity that has come with it.

Running Sucks

I hate running.  But I hate being overweight even more.  So I run and walk and have been now watching what I eat more closely.   I ran a bunch and on a regular basis last year and between that and farming, I didn’t watch what I ate because I didn’t have too.

I twisted my ankle the week the lambs were delivered to their new home in late September and between being in active and continuing to love my diet of whole milk, cream, butter type foods, I managed to put on 20 pounds over the winter.

My friend Lucy is in so much better shape then me and she eats a lower dairy fat diet.  I didn’t admit it to her then, but our visit at the lake and seeing photos of me in a bathing suit was enough to get my act together.

I have been walking with Lili for a while and we can do a comfortable 5-8 miles, but not always having the time, good old fashioned running is what I gotta do.  I found this website called sparkpeople that lets you put the weight you want to loose, along with the time you want to loose it and then add your exercise,  you end up with a calorie range to eat each day to lose weight in a reasonable way.  I get 1200-1500 calories a day with 30 minutes of walking exercise 3x a week to loose 20 pounds by the end of November.

The first week, nothing happened on the scale, but I became more aware of what I was eating and when I was eating it. Last week went better and I seem to be losing.  YEAH.  Bub says I look better, but he is required to say that due the fine print in the marriage contract.

The point of this is that I managed 3 miles, from Campbells Corners, to the Four Corners to just below Connies Kitchen in about 30 minutes.  I also got caught in the pouring rain and bailed when the lighting began.  I looked so pathetic, that getting a ride to my in-laws on Stagehouse Road was a snap.   But I booked it, up block house hill which is a nasty long grind of a hill, and up the hill by the Four Corners.

It was pretty ugly, and I am not sure if I can really call it running, lumbering maybe, and running sucks, but I did it anyhow.  Thank you Miss Lucy for the inspiration.

Vermont 251

Today will be a good day to join this group.  I am heading down to Rupert and Sandgate Vermont for work.  I get to go down and spend the night and visit hopefully 5 farms.  Tomorrow I will be heading to Sheep Camp over in Addison, so since I am heading down and mousing around, I thing signing up for 251 is a good deal.  Thought about it, now gonna do it. Why not.  Sounds neat to be able to say that you have been in every town in your state.  Shout out to Texas family… how many towns there?  How many in Ohio?

The southern part of the state is sometimes refereed to as the “banana belt” by folks up North.  I don’t know what they call us, but I am sure they do have some sort of slam of a name.  Woodchuck comes to mind.  Redneck, Doyah (rhymes with toy) might be a couple.  But I don’t know, so I will ask at the Inn I am staying at.

I love the North East part of Vermont, called the Northeast Kingdom or the Kingdom by many, as long as I have known it.  However when I was little, living in suburban Boston, my little friends would all trek off to “the Cape” for the summer and I would head to the Kingdom.  Didn’t I get teased!  So today I am going to part of the state that I am largly unfamiliar with, the South West.  Been thought Bennington on my way back from the Dutchess County Sheep Show, aka as Rhinebeck.  But have never moused around.   I think for the 251 club you have to get out of the car.

Bottom left corner surrounded by Massachusetts and New York State.  I have googled the map and it is about 3 hours and a smidge from here.  Waterbury, Randolph, Rutland, Danby and Rupert.  No direct way but up and over the mountains and continue down the West side of the Greens.

Got my camera ready.  I love living in this state.

Father’s Day Redux…

The Internet is an amazing thing.   Cousins Tori, Lesley and I “face plant”  pretty regularly.  Also my father’s cousins  Greg and Sherri are webbing it.

Day before yesterday I was googling Jump and found an entry on ancestor. com from Steve who was looking for information on his wife’s family….Arthur and Ellen Elizabeth Deakin Jump.  He posed a question to the universe in 2002… now 7 years later and with the same email, I wrote him back and in less then 24 hours he replied.

Hello Alexandra,

I guess my wife and you are 2nd cousins. My mother in law would be a 1st cousin of your father. I have the same picture that you sent below. My wifes grandmother is the second one from the left in the bottom row, her name was Margery as is my mother in law.  My mother in law remembers your grandfather and she may also get in touch with you via email.

I would like to compare info with you. The earliest Jump I have is Hugh Jump born in 1620 and he would be your 9th great grandfather.

If you have any other pictures they would be great to see. I have pictures also that may interest you. I also have copies of your great grandparents passports, my mother in law has the originals.

I have included a picture of Adam and Alice (Butler) Jump, your great great grandparents.

Get back to me when you can. If you want to talk directly we can do that also.
Take care!
Steve

Last night I looked at my great great grandparents photo.  Adam and Alice Jump from Sheffield England.  What a hoot. Check out that dress she is wearing!

I am in serious thought about taking my name back legally.   Bub and I have talked about it and he says he is fine, and since it is not a separator from him, but a joiner for me, he is ok with it. ( we will see when I actually do it )  I don’t think that my mother is going to be to pleased, since she divorced from my father more then 40 years ago, remarried and has identified with her second husband’s family.   I haven’t identified with my step-father’s family for more than 20 years, so that name is not that significant to me. But to her, this might bring back bad memories and she might see it as a slam.    I hope not. My children have their father’s name, which is not mine anymore.  They can make the choice of keeping their names or taking their future husband’s name when the time comes.

Name, identity, how we see ourselves in the world might be an easy thing for some.  For me it has been a real struggle.  There has always been a sense that part of me was missing.  Somehow taking my name back makes a great deal of sense.   I will ruminate on that for a while.  It will be a total pain to change everything and some folks will make assumptions about the change.  But not doing because it is a hassle is a weak argument.

Father’s Day

Jump Family 1935

Front Row left to right: Valerie, Margery,  Great-Grandparents Arthur and Ellen, Ida and Nellie.
Back Row left to right: Alexander, William (grandfather), John, Arthur, Norman, Bernard and Gordon.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Third generation Jump

From left to right, front row:
David Jump (my father’s brother, son of William),  Greg (son of Norman), Theresa (daughter of Gordon), Gordon (son of Gordon P.) and Bill my father, son of William

From left to right, back row:
Jeffery (Gordon’s brother, son of Alexander), Bernard (Bunny – son of Bernard), Valerie (daughter of Arthur), Gordon (The Lonely Maytag repairman, son of Alexander) and Bruce (son of Bernard).

Bill was my father.  I am getting to know him now though an outreach to the Jump family.  I began my search about a decade ago and I have found and met a couple of cousins, one in person and two by phone and through e-mail.  A shout out to Lesley Alexandra Jump Baumann and to Victoria (who I just got to meet recently on Facebook and spoke to this past week)  Victoria is Tori Hale and lives in Texas. She is the daughter of my Uncle David.  I spoke with her mom Gayle this past week too.  Sherri and Greg Jump, Lesley’s parents have been super nice too and I got these photos from Greg.

Bub and I are planning a trip out to Dayton and to Texas in August to meet these folk.  It is really difficult to put into words what it is like to find family that has been estranged. (Basically I tear right up and ball like a baby)  When my parents divorced, my mother retained all parental rites and my father passed away when I was still pretty little.  Mother remarried and so connection with my father’s family was cut. My name was changed when I was about 4 to my step father’s name. But I always remembered that I was a Jump.

I don’t blame my mother.  My father was an alcoholic and I am sure that the relationship with his family was painful for her. I am sure that she did what she thought was best for me. I have some memories of a trip out to Dayton to visit my grandparents once and I remember meeting cousin Tori, Aunt Gayle and Uncle David.   I also remember Aunt Annie, a dear sweet old women who lived with us a short time after my father left and before my mother remarried.  ( she used to soak her teeth in a glass overnight and I remember taking and hiding them under my pillow- because that is where you put teeth for the tooth fairy. I was maybe 3)  Aunt Annie went back to Dayton and lived with my grandparents.  Tori knew her too.

To know ones family, the good and the bad is important.  The issue of who I am has been unanswered largely because of not knowing this genetic half of me.  For what ever reason, I am driven to put this back into order, like a puzzle box that has been dropped and you can’t see the picture until all the pieces are found.  In this case, pieces have been missing for decades.   I just want to see what the whole picture looks like.

What has been most wonderful is the giant open arms the Jumps have for me. Father’s day has always been a bit of a funny day for me.  Not having one has meant a bit of sadness to say the least.  A feeling of being left out of something everyone else has, and one that I should have had too.

So today is Father’s day and I am getting to know my father and beginning to lay those bones to rest.   So very thankful for it as well.