Who I Am

Who I Am

Quick Info:

My email: edeekulper@gmail.com

My other blog: www.navigatingchristianity.com

My Instagram galleries: Life on Orcas Island and Edee Kulper

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Hi! I’m Edee.

In my senior year of high school, surveys were passed out to all of us. One of the questions asked where we would be in 20 years. The answers were typed up and compiled in a packet, which is in my memorabilia box. The page with my answers says,

“Edee’s most wonderful fantasy is to find an island to live on; she’d pick berries and spear fish, and he’d build their hut.”

Oh, the power of words… We moved to Orcas Island almost exactly 20 years to the day of my saying that! I couldn’t believe it when I realized it about a month after we moved here. Though when I was 18, I was imagining a tropical island. Ha!

Fortunately for my husband, he did not have to build our “hut.” But I do pick a whole heck of a lot of blackberries!

Before moving here, we visited six summers and were blown away by the natural beauty, the genuine friendliness of the community, and the peaceful magic of this place. It would’ve been seven except that at one point we asked ourselves whether we should go to Orcas Island again or have another child that summer. Flippantly silly-sounding, isn’t it? We chose the latter.

We made the leap and moved here in 2012. When we moved, I decided that since I was able to be a stay-at-home mom, I would put aside my love of photography and writing in order to be a very present, undistracted mom so that I could soak up every minute of fleeting childhood and never regret missing any of it. Then several years ago, my husband said, “Edee, you would be the perfect person to have a blog.” I would? I didn’t check my email or our answering machine enough to stay current with my own life at the time. We didn’t even have cell phones then, so a blog felt like quite a leap into social media.

My first response was, “You know, I don’t go on Facebook or Instagram much. And I don’t read other people’s blogs. If I start writing, I’m not going to be very current with what other people are doing, and I don’t know that I want to be.”

“You don’t have to be,” he said. “Just because you like to write doesn’t mean you have to keep up with what other people are doing and writing. You don’t have to write for anyone but yourself.”

Huh. “You’re right. I would love that. Even if only one person read it, I would enjoy it.”

He was right. I’ve always documented life with my camera, and writing is what I do – my life is in a tall stack of journals. I started this blog one day in 2017 when I was sick in bed and I’ve been loving it ever since. A little too much. Our island presents the most majestic backdrop for the comings and goings of our family’s daily life, which pulls me to capture each bit of magic and pass it on to you. I also feel drawn to record our island life because sadly I know that each little thing is changing as the years go by. We’ve already seen some cherished aspects slip quietly away.

For people who live here, everything I write about will be commonplace – perhaps even boring to read about. But for people who don’t live here, life on the island will look very different from life on the mainland.

Aside from island life, you’ll notice that I pepper the blog with some of my thoughts and life stories. Some have nothing to do with Orcas Island, making them seem out of place… my edeeosyncrasies.

So without further ado, here is a glimpse of what life is like here on our island and inside my head. Thank you for visiting!

A Little More Background

When my husband and I met in Santa Barbara, California, in 2003, I was scrambling to make my name known in as many local publications as possible. In fact, I was photographing the I Madonnari Italian Street Painting Festival for the organization that puts it on when I first saw my husband-to-be as he walked past me – I was on a ladder with my camera, he looked like a professional cyclist walking by with his bicycle.

Though I had graduated with honors in 1996 with a BA in Cultural Anthropology from UC Santa Barbara, photography had always been my passion. Aside from travel photography in the US, Chile, Bolivia, and Africa, I had assisted a product photographer, two wedding photographers, and helped a wildlife filmmaker with editing. I was freelancing for newspapers, magazines, catalogs, and organizations. (Not to mention working additional jobs to make ends meet as a nighttime caretaker for elderly people and a part-time customer service representative at a title company during my other free daylight hours.)

“Instead of spreading yourself thin with so many different kinds of photography, why not put all of your focus into one area?” my husband asked. “You love shooting weddings. Why don’t you put everything into doing that?”

I listened. I photographed weddings on the weekends and became a stay-at-home mom when we began having children. After several years of alternating homeschooling our two boys, I finally had some time to myself when they both went to school. Then the pandemic shut everything down that year, and I was back to being a “teacher’s assistant” with them at home.

The kids both went back to school in the fall of 2021, and I began work on a book with the same name as this blog. I self-published it in March of 2022, and it is available here. It is also available at Darvill’s Bookstore, Ray’s Pharmacy, Orcas Island Historical Museum, Island Life, and Crow Valley Gallery here in Eastsound, Rosario Resort Gift Shop near Moran State Park, Orcas Island Library, and online at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, etc.

50+ Things About Me (in an effort to inspire you to tell me 50+ things you’ve done when we meet!):

Mother
Walk every weekday morning, rain or shine, often while reading a book
Math tutor (Monday-Thursday) to 2 students each year since 2021
Substitute teacher at Orcas Christian School since 2021
Writer and photographer of this blog since November 2017
Writer of NavigatingChristianity.com blog since January 2020
Helped my friend Frank Loudin compile and publish his short stories into two books – Yarns: Stories From the Way We Were, Based on a Few Actual Facts, and Christmas Yarns: Stories From the Way We Were, Based on a Few Actual Facts
Wrote Sun Days column for theOrcasonian.com
Traveled with my younger son to Turkey (Istanbul, Ankara, and Cappadocia)
Traveled as a family to Italy (Monopoli, Bari, Ravello, and Florence)
Photographed, wrote, and self-published Life on Orcas Island (the book)
Traveled as a family to Fiji’s Yasawa Islands
Traveled as a family to Italy (Sorrento, Amalfi Coast, Capri, Cinque Terre, and Lake Como)
Homeschooled our boys (they alternated years – up to 7th grade with the older and up to 3rd grade with the younger)
Traveled as a family to Aitutaki in the Cook Islands
Contributed articles and photos to The Islands’ Sounder newspaper
Traveled to Kenya with our kids and photographed an orphanage called Heroes of the Nation
Was a weekly church youth group teacher/leader for children’s programs for over a decade – Bible Study Fellowship, AWANA, Big Wednesday, Kids’ Club, Pioneer Club, and Middle School Youth Group
Sold photo calendars, cards, and books at Orcas Island Farmers’ Market
Co-created, directed, interviewed, and hosted a weekly one-hour interview show called Fishers of Men of local and international missionaries at a local television studio in Santa Barbara, CA
Was the assistant interviewer on a business and technology radio show in Santa Barbara
Made quilts for Royal Family Kids’ Camp (made two quilts with our 4-year-old to give to foster children who have no home and no family)
Photographed weddings in Santa Barbara
Attended Bible Study Fellowship (BSF) women’s course in Santa Barbara for 3 years (the 9-month courses I took were The Book of Genesis, The Life of Moses, and The Gospel of Matthew)
Was an assistant to a food critic and chocolate & bottled water expert (Arthur von Wiesenberger) as a researcher, writer, and website editor
Ran dozens of 5Ks, several 10Ks, and Santa Barbara’s Pier-to-Peak Half Marathon
Freelance photographer for The Santa Barbara Independent, The South Coast Beacon, Healing Retreats & Spas, and Coastal Woman Magazine (people, homes, fashion, lifestyles, portraits, etc.)
Nighttime caretaker for two elderly people
Wedding photographer’s assistant in Santa Barbara (Melissa Musgrove)
Customer service representative for title company
Wildlife filmmaker’s editing assistant (Bruce Reitherman – Mowgli’s voice in the original Jungle Book movie)
Chosen as a finalist for Jeopardy! Clue Crew (clue presenter) – competed in final audition at Jeopardy! stage in Los Angeles
Created, directed, and hosted a prototype of a television show called The Job Shop
Drove through most of South Africa, photographing upscale resorts, wildlife, a Jeffreys Bay Billabong surf competition, 8 national botanical gardens, and a private Robben Island tour while staying with a friend of Mandela’s
Research editor for Islands Media in Santa Barbara (Islands magazine and Spa magazine)
Maker of unusual cakes
T-shirt-design artist for personal line of nature-oriented shirts (river, mountain, and tree designs) printed on colored, blank, Patagonia-brand shirts
T-shirt designs repeatedly rejected by Patagonia founder and owner, Yvon Chouinard
Wedding photographer’s assistant in Truckee, CA (Lisa Dearing)
Photo assistant to high-tech product photographer, mostly with Photoshop (Keith Sutter)
Pillow designer (applique) for boutique in Nevada City, CA, with reused fabrics, clothing, sheets, etc. (They sold like hotcakes! I called a sleeping bag company asking for leftover stuffing to put inside of pillows. They sent me a room full of it and all I paid was $50 for shipping.)
Kayaked Kauai’s Na Pali coast and slept on the isolated Kalalau Beach for a week
Researcher, writer, and editor for Alternative Energy Institute, Inc. (AEI); a significant portion of material in a book called Turning the Corner: Energy Solutions for the 21st Century came from articles that I originally researched and wrote
Casino barista
Snowboard rental assistant and ski lift instructor
River guide and chef on the Kern River in California
River guide school manual writer (in exchange for two free one-week guide schools on the American and Kern Rivers in order to document every single detail via pen, paper, and recorder)
T-shirt-design artist for river guide shirts
Sent audition tapes to two wildlife shows advertising TV host positions
Backpacked & bussed the length of Chile, backpacked 8-day Torres del Paine circuit in Patagonia, rafted the Bio Bio and Futaleufu Rivers, crossed the Salar de Uyuni from Chile to Bolivia
Backroads bike tour leader and chef in Glacier National Park; Bryce, Zion, and Grand Canyon; and California Wine Country
Class B driver comfortable with van and bike trailer, school bus with raft trailer, and raft-stacked 4WD truck with no brakes left except the emergency brake (well, that one wasn’t so comfortable)
Graduated with honors from University of California at Santa Barbara in Cultural Anthropology
Climbed almost to the summit of Mt Whitney in Tevas in spring (accidentally left my boots on my porch 9 hours away)
UCSB Adventure Programs kayaking leader, backpacking leader, and kayak rolling instructor
Kayak tour leader and surfing instructor for Santa Barbara outfit
Door-to-door salesperson of condensed encyclopedias in various New Jersey towns (earned $10,000 in two-and-a-half months one summer in college; rated 32nd of 1,000 first-year dealers; earned free trip to Cancun)
Movie extra in Los Angeles (Dish Dogs and Exposé, both terrible movies)
Camp counselor on Catalina Island
Chosen for two-week, all-expenses-paid experiential education program at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute in Massachussetts
Played varsity volleyball, basketball, softball, and (men’s) soccer (there was no women’s team)
Hostess and busser
Smoothie maker
Grocery store bagger
Hamburger and french fry bagger
Motel maid at 12
Own business at 11, washing windows and cleaning houses (one family often paid me $10 each time I spent 5-8 hours cleaning their house)