I can’t say that sleeping outside on my futon overnight is life changing, but it made me think how fortunate I was to have my swallows.

They’ve been returning to my place for the last 5 or 6 years and because they eat 100 times their body weight in mosquitos, I don’t have any, or at least I didn’t think I did.  And being unsure was unwilling to test the theory by laying naked outside on my futon and going to sleep.

But I did last night and guess what?  No mosquitos or any bugs of any kind.  And that’s a rare thing up her in the hills.

Anyway, a male and female set up camp just off  the wood planking of my deck in the Spring, building a mud nest on one of the roof rafters.  (Their original one had been right over the wood planking and was a mess.  I didn’t knock it down because I wanted to make sure they returned.)

This is the second year in their new home.  They fly around every day collecting mosquitos for their own survival while they hatched a family of their own.  Soon there were four more swallows waiting to be fed by mom and dad.  So now instead of two swallows, I have six.

I go out on my futon and read in the mornings while it’s cool and now that the babies are almost full size, mom and dad force them out of the nest to fly.  Every time the young swallows try to come back to the nest, the parents run them off.  This goes on for an hour or so a few times a day.  It’s fun to watch.

Then as evening comes and they’ve gone out and collected all the mosquitos, the young swallows return to the nest while mom and dad keep watch close by.

So I went outside last night to sit on the futon and look at the lights of the city and not a mosquito could be heard or felt, so decided to lay down on my back for a bit.  Still nothing, so I put the futon down in the bed position, grabbed a sheet and a blanket, and set about for a night’s sleep.  Awakened when the sun was coming up and didn’t have a bite anywhere on me.  I thanked God for the swallows.  I’m going to sleep out again until the weather cools off.

As an aside, I started the low carb diet again after experimenting with eating complex carbs, but it didn’t work so I’m eating 100 or less net carbs a day and the weight has begun to move down.  I was in the 240’s as of the new year, made a bet with Stephen, lost the bet, and have been in the 250’s since.  Figured I was pouting and being a big baby, so decided that it’s time to begin again.