Alex, Leon, and I were lucky enough to spend the month of June at Artemisia, en route to Madison, Wisconsin, where we are moving. It was great to be able to settle in for a while and enjoy the spectacular Methow Valley and our zero-energy cabin. We were also fortunate enough to have friends from Seattle visit every weekend, including Lisa and Dave and the twins. Sadly, Dave and Lisa's dog (and Bea's best buddy) Lester died last month from cancer. He was a big part of Team Artemisia, and we will miss him.
We held our annual Artemisia work/maintenance party to keep everything looking spiffy. The cabin has made it through its first year of rentals relatively unscathed, which I take as a testament to the durable materials it's built with. Now that we've tried all the systems out in the real world, we'll be posting some more reviews and information about some of the equipment and materials we chose to help us meet our zero-energy goal.
Aside from doing some maintenance and a few upgrades, we still had plenty of times to get outdoors. We went hiking, mountain biking, or trail running almost every day. I love the trail that goes around Riser Lake and Lewis Butte, which is within walking distance of our front door. We also loved swimming at Pearrygin Lake and hiking the amazing Blue Lake Trail with our friends Mary and Hadley. We also had fun hosting the Village Summer Camp, an annual camp-out event for a group of about 20 friends. On Father's Day, Dave and I got a pass from childcare duties to go do a 30-mile mountain bike ride, from the Buck Mountain loop through some back roads and down through the Rendezvous trail area. It was epic, and I was sore the next day!
