I note you invite photos for your blog - one or two of these might be of interest. Taken last Tuesday (Feb. 17/09) on what we call "H" Lake but what I think is Westpahl Lake, we found amazing ice on which to skate. Met you later on the Spider Portage. Marion and I and Steve and Pat Blundy took our sleds inthrough the Nutter Bay Portage.Will likely drop by later in the week or on the weekend.Regards,Don Wheeler

Wind farm quashed
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Beacon Star, News, Friday, January 30, 2009
by Carli Whitwell more by this writer
The Ontario Power Authority has denied Wasauksing First Nation’s request it buy electricity from the First Nation’s proposed large-scale wind farm.
Skypower Corporation — a renewable energy developer and one of Wasauksing’s partners in the venture along with Citizens Wind – put in a proposal in the fall requesting the OPA buy power from an up to 150-megawatt (or 100 turbine) farm to be located on the island.
Instead, the OPA, which offers a 20-year contract to buy hydro generated at 11 cents a kilowatt hour, awarded the large-scale wind farm contracts to wind power projects located in Chatham-Kent, Essex, Prince Edward County and Thunder Bay, which when finished by the end of 2012, will provide electricity for 120,000 homes.
“We’re looking at it with the glass half full,” said Wasauksing chief councillor Shane Tabobondung. “We do have successes. We have a 36-megawatt (24 turbines) small project and maybe it would be a good transition for wind development and to use as a revenue base. We will focus on that now.”
Wasauksing started investigating wind power as a source of revenue and to develop the economy of the First Nation over five years ago. Last year, they signed a contract with the OPA in which the power authority will buy power from four nine-megawatt farms – these haven’t yet been built.
Tabobondung said he hasn’t been provided with reasoning as to why Wasauksing’s application was turned down, but Mary Bernard, spokesperson for Ontario Power Authority spoke generally about the 17 applications that weren’t accepted by the OPA, unable to provide direct information about the Wasauksing proposal.
“Some of them didn’t fulfill the requirements for the RFP (request for proposal) or they were not priced competitively. In some cases the proposals weren’t complete. Some did not meet the connection requirements and some, even though they could be connected, were priced higher than other projects vying for the same capacity.”
The OPA can’t build in certain parts of the province because a lack of capacity in the local transmission system for the projects, which explains why some applicants did not meet connection requirements.
There are not any current requests for proposals for large-scale wind farms Wasauksing can apply for, but Tabobondung said when there’s another call for proposals they’ll apply again.
“We’re waiting for the elections to be finished,” he said, so the new council can continue development. Wasauksing elections take place Friday, Feb. 13.
Tabobondung said their partner Skypower paid for the cost of the applications, a price tag that the North Star was unable to get from company spokesperson Aaron Peters, who didn’t return attempts made to contact him.
Another Skypower partner, Byran Wind Project in Prince Edward County, was one of the six projects chosen by the OPA. They are building a 64.5-megawatt farm.