Julie Siebel

I began working with Untours in 2003 after moving from my home town of Vancouver, WA to an old log cabin in the Central Panhandle Mountains of northern Idaho. We live off-grid, with solar power, satellite internet, three dogs and a cat, plus squirrels, rabbits, deer, elk, wild turkeys, and the occasional bear.

After helping Untours redesign their website, I somehow never got around to leaving, so Brian gave up and hired me full-time as the off-site IT person. I was never tempted when clients had offered me full-time positions in the past, but Untours was special and I know a good thing when I see it. All the work that the Foundation is doing I take to heart, and I feel as though we're offering an essential service while striving to improve the world.

I design and manage the website, do a lot of programming to make the staff's basic tasks easier and more efficient, handle technical support, and, in off-hours, do a little customer service. I can get your question to the right ears, and I often answer questions on evenings and weekends.

My handsome husband John (who helped write this bio), preps all of the photographs for the website and helps with many other web updates. He is my art director, does the dishes and keeps us in firewood.

In my spare time I write and I cook. We live in such a remote area that the types of restaurant foods I am used to and love aren't available, so I've finally learned to make a lot of them myself. I would love to visit Nafplio or Tuscany or just about anywhere Untours travels, and eat my way across Europe!

I have never been to Europe, though John and I have visited most of the U.S. on our rockhounding adventures. Our lifestyle isn't conducive to longer vacations, as we have gardens to water and animals to feed, and snow to shovel off the roof in the winter. We have toured the Yucatan peninsula a couple of times, so we appreciate the joys of being immersed in another culture. We'll take an Untour someday, but for now, we enjoy these travels vicariously through your trip logs on the Untours Café.