i was going to, that is until i rearranged the circuit.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WRuugLwtQyU i dropped the silicon transistor and went with a 50yr old germanium Motorola transistor.
now it will run on the heat of my hand. it will start oscillating at around 25mV now, almost too low for my meter to pick up. starting current draw is around 170uA..... 15,000mAh D-Cell battery on that low a draw... time to build some energy scavenging circuits to power it with.