They can and have reproduced themselves and laid a clutch of identical offspring without seeing a male. It is rare, but can happen. It's called parthenogenesis.
I would place the temp probes under the substrate over the heat mat and adjust accordingly to get temps where u want them. Otherwise you could end up having to deal with burns.
It's likely she is doing this behavior because her ambients have dropped due to winter being upon us. Chances are she wants to be warmer and that's how she does it.
On a side note, you may want to consider buying a new tstat. A tstat that allows it to drop more than 7 degrees before coming back on is inefficient and makes for too cold of a hot spot. The most it should vary is 1-2 degrees between cycles. The snake may also be on a hunger fast because the inconsistent temps are stressing her out.
It sounds like you are doing a pretty good job. Just gotta get the temps stabilized and make sure the ambient and cold side temps aren't dropping too low
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