Quick Info:
Email: edeekulper@gmail.com
Instagram galleries: Life on Orcas Island and Edee Kulper
Other blog that I spend little time on these days: www.navigatingchristianity.com
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Hi! I’m Edee.
During 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 answer 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.”
The power of words… We moved to Orcas Island in 2012, almost exactly 20 years to the day of my saying that. I realized it about a month after we moved here. Though when I was 18, I was imagining a tropical island!
Simple things I love… love, pondering life in bed when I wake up each morning, thoroughly enjoying each present moment, walking long distances, learning about other people, walking steep trails between Italian towns, floating in warm clear-blue Mediterranean water, and waking up to sunny mornings here on Orcas Island.
My experiences in a bullet-point nutshell:
- Mother of two boys (15 and 19)
- Walker, often while reading a book
- Paddleboarder (a mellow one)
- Writer and photographer of this blog since November 2017
- Author and photographer of Life on Orcas Island book
- Radio interviewer on Orcas Island’s KIXP 102.3 FM
- Podcaster on Amazon Music, Spotify, iHeartRadio, PlayerFM, Podchaser, BoomPlay, PodBean, and soon on Apple Podcasts
- Facilitator of craft and tea groups for people with disabilities
- Escort and exercise companion for seniors and people with disabilities
- Substitute teacher at Orcas Christian School since 2021-2024
- Math tutor 2021-2024
- Reading tutor 2024
- Compiler, editor, and self-publisher of other people’s books
- Helped Bob Nutt compile, edit, and self-publish a book written by his deceased neighbor Barbara Humes – Mush, You Huskies, Mush!
- Helped Frank Loudin compile, edit, and self-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
- Created NavigatingChristianity.com blog in January 2020 (it gets little attention now)
- Traveled with our younger son to Turkey (Istanbul, Ankara, and Cappadocia)
- Traveled as a family to Italy (Monopoli, Bari, Ravello, and Florence)
- Traveled as a family to Fiji’s Yasawa Islands
- Traveled as a family to Italy (Sorrento, Amalfi Coast, Capri, Cinque Terre, and Lake Como)
- Traveled as a family to Aitutaki in the Cook Islands
- Homeschooled our boys (they alternated years – 5th and 7th grade with the older and 1st and 3rd grade with the younger)
- Contributed articles and photos to The Islands’ Sounder newspaper
- Traveled to Kenya with our kids and photographed an orphanage called Heroes of the Nation
- Led/taught weekly youth groups and children’s programs for over a decade – Bible Study Fellowship, AWANA, Big Wednesday, Kids’ Club, Pioneer Club, Middle School Youth Group, and VBS
- 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
- Assistant interviewer on a business and technology radio show in Santa Barbara
- Made quilts for kids going to Royal Family Kids’ Camp (made two quilts with our 4-year-old to give to foster children who have no home and no family)
- Wedding photographer in Santa Barbara
- Attended Bible Study Fellowship (BSF) women’s courses 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)
- 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
- My T-shirt designs were 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 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 (Catalina Island Marine Institute – CIMI)
- 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 only $10 each time I spent 5-8 hours cleaning their house)
Favorite Movies: The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (Ben Stiller version) and The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel
A Sampling of My Photography:
Nature Verticals and Horizontals
Portrait Verticals and Horizontals
Magazine and Newspaper Photography
Unless otherwise stated, all text and images on this site are Copyright © Edee Kulper
