Dr. Ralph Hall sold 25 of his 2,200 acres to Northland Power so they could build a power station and he's glad he did.
It was a rocky piece of land that offered up only two "really excellent" crops in 40 years, so he's glad not to have to worry about it any more. For him and his family, the building of the North Battleford Generating Station has proved to be a far more positive experience than trying to farm the piece of land that, if the river rose, sometimes couldn't even be accessed.
"It was a most interesting three or four years of our lives, I'll tell you," Hall told the Regional Optimist on the day of the ribbon cutting for the plant, a few kilometres southeast of North Battleford.
During comments at the opening ceremonies for the day, the construction phase was described as being disruptive to them, he said, "and it was, because I was always over here, watching and helping."
Hall enjoyed making himself useful.
"I mowed grass and I sprayed, I did things around here to help out a bit and, God knows, just to entertain them," he laughed. "My wife [Barbara] made tea and crumpets for them, and there were people coming and going like flies at our place."
Their farmyard is about a mile to the west of the plant.
"To the city of North Battleford it's a marvellous edifice," he said. "To a little farmer over there, you can't imagine.
Now that it's up and running, the Halls say they are barely aware of any noise from the massive plant.
"It's absolutely no disruption," said Heather Hall, who has a house in Battleford but likes to spend time at her parents' farm.
"If the wind is coming from the east, you're aware of something going on over here," said Dr. Hall, "but we hear the trucks on the highway and especially the trains far more than we hear this."
As for giving up a piece of his farm for the mega project, he said, "So many times it was inconvenient and it was sometimes impossible to get here, so the timelessness of our operation over here was limited. It is a welcome relief that is now not part of the operation. We can farm the rest of it far more readily than we could ever farm this."
