Lights Out

[Timothy Mulligan]

We have some plants that under normal conditions are hard to grow so if we were to have a power outage in the middle of winter when it is 5 below and windy and snowing it would be nice to have the power back up swiftly. Well, one night we had a wicked snowstorm, power went out and I did not have a back up generator but I had a kerosene heater that had a big smokestack and which stood 6 ft. tall. We had a whole greenhouse full of maize. I pulled this thing in there and I lit it up and it was like a torch because I did not know exactly how to regulate it and thank goodness I did not set the whole thing on fire or melt anything but fortunately I got the thing to a temperature so we did not lose any plants. But by the time I figured out how to regulate it, it was 2 or 3 in the morning and I did not want to leave it alone so I sat down in the greenhouse with my back against the bench and I felt myself fall asleep. I must have taken a catnap or two in the greenhouse that night with this kerosene heater keeping us warm.