Long-time Orient Land Trust supporter, John Lorenz, will offer San Luis Valley and OLT inspired photographs for sale at The Fritz restaurant in Salida during the month of October. An opening reception with refreshments and a cash bar will happen Saturday, October 4th from 4 to 6 pm. Martin Jolley and other artists will also offer art for sale. A minimum of 30% of sales has been promised for the WWTP Fund.
Following the reception, the party will move over to Wood's Distillery on First Street where over 12 artists will also have paintings, photographs and sculptures available for purchase, again with a minimum of 30% being donated to the WWTP Fund. The show and sale at Wood's will only be available from October 3rd through that weekend.
Artists participating include Joshua Been, Laura Been, Laura Barton, Jimmy Descant, current and past Valley View Hosts: Evette Twyford, Karen Johnson and Kevin The Camp Host, John Lorenz, Martin Jolley, Curtis Killorn, Peggy Wilson, Cary Carlson and others to be announced by the 1st of October. If you would like to donate art or participate in this event, please contact Martin at .
We are hoping to see all of you who enjoy Valley View at both the Fritz and at the Distillery on Saturday, October 4th. If you can't make it then, please visit the Fritz during October. Remember, we are working to raise up to $180,000 to build the replacement for the antiquated "chocolate jacuzzi". Thank you.
Another exciting Members Appreciation week-end was logged on August 9th-11th at Valley View Hot Springs when a record 245 OLT members came from far and wide to participate in a fun-filled slate of activities or just "chillax" in our soaking ponds, pool and sauna amidst the ever-stunning Valley View-sheds. More active enthusiasts embarked on OLT's trails, hiked to the bats at Orient Mine, visited our Everson ranch to feed the pigs, took in some perfect Colorado night-sky astronomy, the geologic trench or our mountain-side's flora, fauna and wildlife. At Saturday's always sumptuous pot-luck dinner an annual auction was resurrected this year featuring, besides a few used Lost and Found robes and other unique "treasures" from people's garages, some rather interesting objets d'art, gift baskets, jewelry, a Playa Sonrisa vacation, and a popular retro sign titled "Fish Naked" replete with "bobbers..."! The silent auction netted some $1400 for the Waste Water Treatment Facilities Campaign. Friday and Saturday Night's bands it seemed were attended by all featuring phenomenal music by the groups, "Intuit" and "Atomga" respectively who played into the wee hours. The "Raft Record" contest in the pool boasted another record as folks struggled to hold on for dear life (or not drown holding on!) OLT Staff cooked a hearty breakfast Sunday morning for the largest crowd ever featuring fruit, yoghurt, eggs, sausage, pancakes (gluten-free and regular) with an optional fruit compote on top! New friendships were made and old friendships renewed as the pavilion campfires, s'mores and Oak House jam sessions melded hearts and built "community". Members departed this memorable week-end with a thank you packet of photocards capturing the always alluring OLT experience and landscapes.
-_the_ponds_remain_peaceful_and_serene_(often_empty).__-(055-).jpg "Even during our biggest Member's Weekend (245 ppl), the ponds remain peaceful and serene (often empty).")
-_the_ponds_remain_peaceful_and_serene_(often_empty).__-(055-)-2.jpg "Even during our biggest Member's Weekend (245 ppl), the ponds remain peaceful and serene (often empty).")
-_the_ponds_remain_peaceful_and_serene_(often_empty).__-(055-)-3.jpg "Even during our biggest Member's Weekend (245 ppl), the ponds remain peaceful and serene (often empty).")
.jpg "Hosting a fire at Soaking Pond for Member's Weekend")
.jpg "Brilliant sunset at Member's Weekend 2014")
.jpg "Campers packed in tight for Member's Weekend")
.jpg "Breakfast at Members Weekend 2014")
-2.jpg "Breakfast at Members Weekend 2014")
.jpg "Bernie workin his magic!")
.jpg "Rosie and Kevin serving up a tasty breakfast")
.jpg "Squeezing tents in at Member's Weekend 2014")
.jpg "Long line of off-site parking for Member's Weekend")
.jpg "In line for breakfast")
.jpg "Doug Bishop stylin his potluck tray")
.jpg)
.jpg "Pool Lights on at Member's Weekend")
About 28 people gathered at the beautiful Zero Energy home and gardens of former OLT Board President Dan Jones on Sunday August 17th to support OLT's Wastewater Treatment Plant Campaign. Fresh vegetables from Dan's garden and greenhouse, cookies from Matt's Bakery in Taos and local wine and beer samplings in abundance added to the festive afternoon! New Executive Director Doug Bishop, OLT founders Neil and Terry Seitz, and Board Members Chris Miller and John Standish attended, along with Development Director, Pam Nelson. $2700 was raised (net) from this "$100 pp suggested donation" event. OLT thanks Dan Jones for his generous hosting of this event and for preparing all the sumptuous hors d'oeuvres fresh from his garden. As fundraising plans ramp up to fund the WWTP upgrades, we encourage others to host such regional benefit gatherings in their homes. Please contact Pam Nelson if interested in hosting such an event at 719-298-2289 or if you are able to suggest any no cost/ low cost venues on the Front Range for larger speaker events and/ or similar smaller gatherings. All fundraising ideas are welcome and will be shared with the new External Affairs Committee for discussion.
.jpg "Garden Party Benefit in New Mexico")
-2.jpg "Garden Party Benefit in New Mexico")
-3.jpg "Garden Party Benefit in New Mexico")
-4.jpg "Garden Party Benefit in New Mexico")
While it may be hard to match the Members' Auction item described below, we invite you to dig into your basements, closets, garages and brains for items to bring to OLT Members' Weekend where bid sheets will abound for "stuff" that might be your unique "junk" but other people's treasure - think of professional services, artwork, or meals/catering for other OLT members to bid on.
One highlighted auction item includes 5 nights lodging for 2 with a beachfront king room at the Hotel Playa Sonrisa. Located on the Caribbean Sea, in tourist-friendly southeastern Mexico (retail value $600~930 US depending on season). Includes...
See www.playasonrisa.com for more info. Playa Sonrisa is a Clothing Optional facility for couples only.
Additional items are posted online as they come in. Send your auction item descriptions to for consideration and bring them for display this Saturday!
Check out all the planned activities here online.
Sunday, August 17th, 3-6 pm
1245 Cardenas Lane, El Prado, NM 87529
Support OLT’s Wastewater Treatment Plant Campaign, meet new Executive Director Doug Bishop,visit with Founders Neil & Terry Seitz, experience Board Member Dan Jones’ sustainable, Zero Energy home & gardens, enjoy food from Matts Bakery Taos as well as Dan's garden and greenhouse and sample local wine & beer.
Social nudity is certainly nothing new here. The tradition is common at hot springs and was documented back to the miners who often enjoyed these warm waters after a hard day's work. Naturism, as we know it today, was undoubtedly the sensible choice for soaking when Ute tribes flourished here the Valley. But over time, clothing came to represent much more than its functional use, becoming a cultural expectation even in settings where fabric was impractical and irksome.
Naturism is arguably OLT's most successful and unique distinction, giving guests new found confidence, self-esteem, and a deep personal connection with nature. Here in America, it's rare and often misunderstood. For many, the clothing-optional atmosphere is more remarkable than the incredible wildlife, off-grid facilities, the state's largest bat migration, or even the all natural spring waters that brought them here to begin with. Most new visitors are pleasantly suprised that social decency isn't shed along with our clothes. If anything, the naturist community is more kind and considerate.
To help orient newcomers, OLT now offers a helpful guide to naturism. It can be printed and shared with friends to help address some of the more common questions and concerns. As always, our friendly staff and community are always happy to help introduce this or any of our unique programs.
Read more online at www.olt.org/naturism
(printable guide for sharing, Adobe PDF format)
Orient Land Trust (OLT) staff and volunteers joined three representatives from The Nature Conservancy on July 29th and 30th for the annual assessment of the conservation easement on the ranch and hot springs properties.
For those who haven't heard, the OLT has partnered with The Nature Conservancy (TNC) to place a conservation easement on 1,270 acres encompassing the ranch and hot springs. This easement was implemented in 2010 to ensure the long term conservation of the unique and biologically diverse lands encompassed by the OLT. The easement was designed to protect the significant natural, scientific, and educational values of these lands while allowing for continued operation of the ranch and hot springs facilities.
The Nature Conservancy sends a monitoring team to the OLT annually to ensure the conservation goals of the easement are being met. Specialists revisit monitoring points each year and record notes and photos to document the ecological health of those areas. They also sit down with staff to discuss activities at the ranch and springs. Their visits give the OLT an opportunity to get immediate feedback on the conservation value of various proposed projects.
OLT staff representatives Doug Bishop, Mark Jacobi, and Mike O'Donnell were joined by Conservation Committee volunteers David Mixon and Martin Jolly for the meeting with The Nature Conservancy staff. As always, the representatives from The Nature Conservancy thoroughly enjoyed their visit and expressed their appreciation for the earnest and proactive conservation efforts of the OLT. Feedback on the state of the land was positive and the OLT was able to provide The Nature Conservancy with updates on several future projects, such as our soon-to-be-upgraded wastewater treatment system. The Nature Conservancy and the Orient Land Trust look forward to maintaining this relationship long into the future.
by David Mixon, Conservation Committee Chair
.jpg "The Nature Conservancy, annual easement monitoring")
-2.jpg "The Nature Conservancy, annual easement monitoring")
.jpg "The Nature Conservancy, annual easement monitoring")
.jpg "The Nature Conservancy, annual easement monitoring")
The Nature Conservancy
www.nature.org
Do you like to host parties and events? Do you belong to a private club, civic organization or have an "in" with a unique venue that could host an OLT themed fundraising event for little or no cost? We would also like to find hosts on the Front Range and in Colorado and New Mexico who could hold a benefit event for OLT.
Dan Jones is hosting a small Garden Party near Taos next month. This is going to be a wonderful event featuring Dan's unique Zero Energy home and gardens, all to benefit OLT's Wastewater Treatment campaign. We are hoping to gather folks in south Denver and elsewhere for events like last April's dinner with John Fielder. However, we need affordable venues to raise funds. Another idea we are looking at is a Vegan / Oriental cooking class with a professional chef. For this, we'd need a commercial kitchen or private home, again as a benefit for our WWTF campaign.
We'd welcome any ideas for fundraising events you and your friends might want to host. Staff can help with promotion and outreach materials. Help us create more community-building fundraisers with unique settings and minimal costs. Call Pam Nelson, Director of Development, at 719-298-2289 to share your ideas.
Honoring Orient Land Trust
Earth's crust waxes thin in our desert,
a skin of hot waters rising, sparse rains
cooling this patchwork of pinon and sage,
pounding forces too star-staged to fight.
And so we roll like morning light,
like dunes, like ant hills, like the waves
of the one-time sea now
disappeared into our aquifer, crystal-centered.
In the silence descending from the Sangres
the rhythms grow obvious
as the petite sunflowers lining our dirt roads.
Anything but blank, our lives
hold down the slim soils, watering
whatever will greenly ascend
to the primal friends who lessen our toil,
illumining our way, nights, days,
pulling radiance through bare twigs for pine nuts
that feed a hundred species.
We serve the recharge—in the swell of sands
we bow to rejuvenation, to the waters
that pool in our foothills
like dew in fern cups,
like tears in a palm.
Raw in wonder, we ask
how to tend the land
with the hoe of listening.
In the silence descending from the Sangres
the rhythms grow clear
as breath—in and out—the same
as Mule Deer, the endangered
Sage Grouse, the bobcat none of us can hear,
the black bear waking hot-breathed from winter.
Vapors swirl our cool mornings,
blessed from below.
Our roots of water grow.
And so our conservation climbs like steam, drifts
like snow to honor the land, the moss rocks
in creeks above us singing
lasting lyrics of a stewardship we mime,
in an immaculate web we must sustain.
"In the Silence Descending, continued with strophe break, page 2.
In the silence descending from the Sangres
the rhythms grow sacred,
our springs healing chaos, the concreteness of grief,
pond pebbles glistening beyond belief, a smoothness
born of eons of the struggles we imbibe
to transform, hard buds
having the courage to bloom.
Finally. The land is quiet, so stilled,
the sky as free. Here we stand
like an ancient tree, arms to the Sun
and roots into what remains unseen.
In the silence descending from the Sangres
we ground the timeless rhythmic ways.
By William Howell based on word pictures, thoughts and impressions shared by staff members Pam Nelson and Dave Beaulieu
Crestone
August,2013
For the education, enjoyment, and well-being of current and future generations, Orient Land Trust:
promotes a positive clothing-optional experience at all properties including Valley View Hot Springs, Orient Mine and Everson Ranch;
preserves the viewshed, including land acquisition;
protects natural, wild, agricultural, and historic resources, in the northern San Luis Valley.
![[BANNER Taking the Long View]](https://olt.org/media/k2/items/cache/8fe3e0f34d3083cba6fe73d62a783d7f_XL.jpg "[BANNER Taking the Long View]")
