It all started last night. I was working on my new expansion of my existing snake room when I heard the wind pick up. The rain started to fall like I'd never seen before, The lights started to flash and seconds later I was left in total darkness.
We had experienced balckouts before and like most I had expected this one to correct itself in a few moments. A few moments became hours and before long I had to come up with a game plan to keep my snakes warm, particularily the ones still in the eggs in my walk-in incubator.
My incubator measures 7 ft X 5 ft with a 7 ft ceiling. It is well insulated and very efficient. I have 3 temp read-outs on the exterior wall so I can tell what the temp is without going in. Before long the temp started to drop. When it reached 87 degrees I had to take some action. Oh yeah...I didn't own a generator!!! What to do? Fire makes heat right. Candles make fire. Yep I borrowed one of my wife's scented candles in a jar and lit it and left the incubator. Would you believe that that one candle kept the temp almost perfect. As a matter of fact it made the room too warm! 91.5! Every hour I'd go in and let some cool air in and fan the room to mix the air. I did this all night because the power did not come back on.
The next morning the power was still off. Candle still burning and working like a charm. To make a long story short, the power came back on 26 hours later just as the candles life was coming to an end and just as I started my new 7000 watt generator! Go figure! Oh well...I needed one anyway!
I'm a firm believer that out of someting negative, something good can come. I had a very nice normal female of mine lay 8 slugs and 2 good eggs. They both ended up being pastels...and this is one of them. He came out of his egg just as the lights came back on. Yep...he is something GOOD! I'll take it!
Thanks for reading if you made it this far! Keep believing!
MJ
-----
www.ballpython.ca
