Emergency candle at 2:30 a.m.

I woke up abruptly at 2:30 this morning to hear sleet pelting the windows. I'm staying up at the old church we're renovating, and usually it's a snuggly, cozy thing to listen to storms at night, knowing I'm protected by thick, solid walls. But for some reason, this morning I woke thinking, "If the power goes out, I'll freeze." Because this church, while solid, is also vast, and heat dissipates fast. I've been keeping to one room, with an electric heater, and am not heating the rest of the building in order to conserve propane. But even this one room will grow cold quickly if the heater goes off.

So after mulling this over for a while, I got up and melted half a can of Crisco and poured it into a wide-mouth mason jar. I fashioned a wick out of cotton thread I had in my weaving supply bin and tied it to a pushpin to anchor it and lower it down the centre of the jar. I propped a knife across the top of the jar to keep the wick upright while the Crisco cools and solidifies again. (That won't take long. The kitchen is 11 degrees Celsius right now.)

So now I have a candle that should last me many hours. I can surround it by foil pans to cast light, but it's more useful as a source of heat (and I have several rechargeable lights already that I can use). If the power goes out and the temperature plunges, I can wall myself and Brio into the bathroom, which is the smallest room, set the candle on the tile, and surround it with bricks (I have several of those), leaving a few gaps at the top and bottom for air circulation. I have a ceramic casserole dish I can put upside down over the top to form a heater, though according to Youtube, a terra cotta pot would be better. The bathroom can be ventilated, and would warm up fast.

I also have quite a lot of canned goods, peanut butter, etc. that don't require heating to eat. And I have a non-electric can opener. I'm set.

Meanwhile the power is still on, the electric baseboards are ticking contentedly, I have a Malcolm Gladwell book to curl up with, and I don't have to start work for another hour and a half. Life is good.