41 The Business of Ontario Agriculture Better Farming | May 2024 posed on the side of a joist. As you can imagine, this could be disastrous in a house (or any building) without a ground wire or if a child decided to swing from them. I remember helping to remove knob-and-tube wiring from the local church that had been wired in the early 1900s. When my in-laws built their new house (which I am living in now) in the 1970s, I talked them into an all-electric house, and the changes were made before we moved into it. Due to prices at the time, we installed a propane heating system. Change happens Unfortunately, Ontario Hydro was sold by the Province and it became Hydro One. Electrical power became more expensive. That’s why I changed the heating system to propane when upgrading the newer Thomson house before we moved into it. The tenants had been burning a lot of wood in two fireplaces to reduce hydro costs. Guess what Ontario’s provincial power distributor is planning a new high-voltage power line for the northeast corner of St. Thomas, to feed Volkswagen’s new electric vehicle battery plant. Hydro One is saying that to get the necessary power lines to that plant, alternate hydro routes need to be considered. One potential tower line would pass through the home farm that has been in the family for over 125 years. For rural areas that once had challenges getting hydro-electric power extended there, now there would be no shortages of them. Public meetings are being held to choose an acceptable tower line route. Summary Some of us have had great memories of getting electrical power and all the luxuries that came with it, as well as working for Ontario Hydro (Hydro One). But time and political actions can change many of those positive memories. What will happen in the future? Your guess is as good or better than mine. BF How it Works WWW.GLENGARRY.CA Let's make it work. Time for a change? We like the sound of that. You’ve got a plan, all you need now is a financial partner who sees what you do. Financial statements are important, but they only capture what happened in the past. That’s not the whole story. We look to the future, too. RALPH WINFIELD Ralph is a retired professional engineer, farmer and technical writer. He has a BSA, BASc, and an MSA in engineering from the University of Toronto. Battery powered radio used in my early home. TVs were not available back then and the radio was our main source for local news, entertainment, and baseball games. I remember when we got our first (deep) black-and-white TV set in that farmhouse. Aurora Bancroft photo
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