It's winter and the snow and ice are accumulating. Look for improvements around the swimming pool. We have laid out some mats and are installing a hot springs water heated system to prevent icy surfaces around the swimming pool. We'll save some shoveling time and cut down on slippery surfaces!

Do you dream of a chance to live at Valley View Hot Springs?  The Seitz’s are looking for someone to live in their home and help care for Neil who has a neurological condition and dementia.  Duties will be part-time providing companionship and personal care for Neil, as well as assisting in case of a fall or other emergency. This is a paid position, and would evolve as Neil’s condition and needs change. Experience with in-home or dementia care preferred, but qualities of empathy, humor, patience and a strong back are most important. Please contact Terry at if interested.

The idea was to take it easy this year and not try to do so much in December. Oh well, it was a good idea. Some of the projects that we worked on this December: install geothermally heated floor in Cottonwood cabin, flagstone path to heated pools, tile the Pool Bath showers, fix, replace, and refinish some of the well worn parts of Main Bath, prepare Spruce House (across the road from the Welcome Center) for rental, set up massage area in Spruce House, and the usual deep cleaning of the buildings. Biting off all those projects began to look like more than we could chew but we are up and running and all the little pieces are coming together.  Thanks to volunteers Mark, Adam, and Bruce for their hard work. We stayed busy and hope that you like the results.

The January Board Meeting is Saturday, January 16, 2016 beginning at 9:00 am. This time we are gathering at the Spruce House for the meeting. (Spruce House is the house across the road from the Welcome Center.) We are finally letting Neil and Terry keep their house on board meetings trusting that they will still attend and provide the meaningful feedback that keeps us on track. Many thanks to the Seitz family for letting us take over on board weekends for fourteen years!

This is our second year of participating in the Colorado Gives Day. Your generosity this year has been amazing. Orient Land Trust has strong support from many people. If you want to take advantage of one last charitable donation for 2015, the Colorado Gives Day is an excellent time. While I’m thinking of it, let me, again, extend  my gratitude to everyone that helped make this a memorable year.

December 1 through December 28, the hot springs will be closed. We open the gate again December 29th. We will be responding to phone messages throughout the time out. Things are different when we’re closed and we enjoy the change of pace. Enjoy your time with friends and family through the holiday. This may be the right time for us to wish you a Happy New Year! Thank you for 2015, a very good year.

Wednesday, October 28, the concrete trucks arrived and the astronomy pad was poured. Everything went smoothly and it's ready for the next show. The clouds came later in the day and we may have to wait a few days for a clear night. It feels good to have this stage of the astronomy program in place before

October 9 we held the dinner at the Radisson in southeast Denver. There were about a 115 people in attendance and we raised nearly $20,000 with more pledges yet to arrive. Kirk Navo and Jay Sims both had informative presentations. Doug Bishop showed some pictures of the programs that OLT has been conducting.

This event gave us a chance to say a great big "Thank You!" to all the generous people that have helped us with the expenses of the Waste Water Treatment Plant. It is difficult to convey how grateful we are for all the help. We can't say Thank You often enough.

Spaces are still left for the OLT Annual Fundraising Dinner on Fri, Oct 9th at the Raddison in south Denver. . Dinner is $35.00 per person and it's a fundraiser to pay off the Waste Water Treatment Plant upgrades. The state-mandated WWTP upgrade involved a long process that included initial study costs, recommendations, designs, permits, and then finally, construction. The accumulating expense began with preliminary studies over six years ago. Once the size and type of upgrade were determined, we then paid the design firm, the State of Colorado for permits, and finally construction costs, totaling about $180,000. Altogether, the WWTP has cost more than $300.000. The good news is that we only borrowed $100,000 and made the first payment towards the loan of roughly $31,000 this September! That means there is only around $70,000 left to fundraise for and we're done! The rest has been paid through our Admission and Accommodation fees, income generated for OLT thanks to all of our visitors! Help us wrap up this campaign in 2015 by attending the dinner or donating on-line! The Oct 9th dinner speakers, OLT community socializing and music with OLT musicians John Standish and Mark Allen will be fun!

You can register for the dinner until October 5 th at 

Online Registration

Discounted rooms are available at the Raddison for $99 / night if any out of town dinner attendees want to stay overnight.. They need to call a special number at the hotel to get that rate at 303-306-3329 and ask for Alysha.

Remember to RSVP for the Second Annual Dinner in South Denver. Dinner is $35.00 per person. We are raising money to pay off the Waste Water Treatment Plant. Thank You for all your help! The system cost $180,000, which is what we were asking for last year. We only had to borrow $100,000 and we made the first payment of $30,754.84 in September. That means there is only $69,245.16 left and we're done! There are still spaces remaining.

ONLINE REGISTRATION

Please join us and donate to help complete the campaign this year!