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Dear Friends,

We are very happy to let you know that the seller has accepted our offer to buy Saguache Peaks Ranch. We are now in contract, and will keep you posted on new developments. The next step will be submission of our conditional use permit application and review by the County Planning Commission and County Commissioners.

Your RC Team

EXCITING NEWS!

On June 5, 2008, Lama Ole and a group of friends visited Saguache Peaks Ranch, which consists of 314 acres just outside the little town of Saguache in the San Luis Valley, west of the Sangre de Cristo range. The property has fantastic views of the mountains, and much of the land is gentle and useable, and it is more suitable for our retreat center than any property we have considered before! Lama Ole loved the land, and gave us the go ahead to pursue it.

Follow the link to see the pictures from our first visit, and from the day Lama Ole saw it: Saguache Peaks Ranch.

Since then, we have met with the neighbors who live there year-round to introduce ourselves, and let them know of our plans. They are all very supportive of our plans, since we will make sure the peace and quiet in this valley will be maintained, and the property will not be torn apart and developed for a subdivision and a bunch of houses. Since Sam, the owner, is also including a snow plough in the purchase, we will also be able to maintain and plough the road in the winter time. For the neighbors and for ourselves!

We also met with the local Water Division representative and had a productive discussion. He agreed to write a letter for our permit application, detailing the requirements we need to meet for our project. These include building a septic system that is big enough for our annual event (so we don't need port-a-potties, which are not allowed here), as well as staying within the limit of 108,600 gallons of water use per year from our "commercial" well, i.e. retreat guests use, which will be plenty of water for many years to come – in fact we think we will use less than half for our program.

Lastly, we contacted BLM, since the access road is a BLM road, to find out if they would have any concerns with our plans. They advised us to get a year-round access permit, and told us that they would not maintain the road for us. However, as long as we take care of the road following BLM standards, they do not see any problem with our use.

This is all great news and we are hoping to make an offer, contingent on the approval of our conditional use permit soon! We will keep you posted!

Your NA Retreat Center Team

To learn more about Diamond Way Buddhism of the Karma Kagyu Lineage please visit www.diamondway.org or www.diamondway-buddhism.org

To learn more about our teachers please visit www.karmapa.org and www.lama-ole-nydahl.org