Reeve busy during floods | Stan Lainton says his emergency training helped him deal with flooding issues in 2011
BIENFAIT, Sask. — Stan and Paula Lainton anticipate spring for the same reasons most people do — calving, seeding and enjoying warm weather.
For the past couple of years, they’ve kept nervous eyes on the snow melt, after a disastrous spring in the Rural Municipality of Coalfields where they farm and Stan Lainton is reeve.
The Saskatchewan RM suffered $3 million in damage during the flood of 2011 that also took out half of Roche Percee, which lies within the RM boundaries.
At one point, most of the north-south roads had to be cut to let water flow through.
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Stan still gets emotional when he talks about the sleepless weeks and the helpless feeling when telling ratepayers to evacuate.
He recounts the story of sandbagging around a rural home only to discover even more water was going to be released from Rafferty reservoir and the house didn’t stand a chance.
“The phone would start ringing at 6 a.m. and I might see him about 10 at night,” said Paula. “He never got frantic. He just kept going.”
The Laintons couldn’t get out of their own yard when 45 centimetres of water flowed over the road.
“We had to drive 12 miles around to get to our daughter’s two miles south of here,” Stan recalled.
People were angry, but there was work to be done and he wasn’t about to stop.
“That’s not in my nature,” he said.
Paula figures it’s in his blood.
His father was on the RM council from 1956 to 1990 and sat on many of the same boards and organizations that Stan does.
That involvement is at least one reason why the Estevan Chamber of Commerce and Estevan Exhibition Association this winter honoured the Laintons as the 2013 Farm Family of the Year. The nominees come from an area encompassing 13 RMs and the award has been given annually for 48 years.
Stan’s father established Rich Prairie Farms in the mid-1940s north of Bienfait.
Stan began farming with him after high school, and held several jobs, including one at the nearby coal mine and driving a school bus.
That’s how he met Paula. She had grown up in Estevan and was teaching in Lampman.
They were married in 1977, had three daughters and two sons and built their own operation in conjunction with Stan’s parents while living in Lampman.
Paula became a stay-at-home mom in 1981 but continues to substitute teach today.
In 1982, they purchased an old farmyard near the family farm, brought in a trailer and dug a well. Eight years later, when Stan’s father died, they added his farmland to their business and in 1992, the Lainton family moved to the farm.
Over the years, they raised pigs and had laying hens, Holsteins and a cream quota. The cream went to Grundeen Creamery and local people bought the eggs. They now have 80 Simmental-Red Angus cross cows and farm about 3,000 acres.
The award took them by surprise.
“My knees got weak,” said Stan. “I had nothing to say.”
Paula said they were shocked be-cause often bigger farmers are recognized, but Stan’s RM work likely was a factor. He credits his emergency management training in dealing with flooding issues.
“I’d have been in a major flap without it,” Stan said.
Paula is also involved in community associations, including serving as a lay minister and as treasurer for the Estevan Wildlife Federation in addition to directing and acting in community theatre. She also sometimes works on the baler or combine.
Their children, Christine, James, Kendra, Monica and Stephen, are all nearby, and the entire family, which now includes partners and three granddaughters, gets together the day the cattle are processed before heading to pasture.
Stan calls this the annual “reunion at the head gate.”
The children maintain a close connection to the farm.
“Steven wants to farm,” said Paula. “Kendra lives on the old farm and Monica and her partner live on his family’s farm.”
This involvement bodes well for the farm’s future and also allows Stan and Paula to take winter holidays and get away on motorcycles in summer.
