Lostlings -- A Jury, the original authors of the book, To Serve Man. Enjoy.

Lostlings are black colored birds that are about the size of parakeets. A group of them is called a Jury. They are not magical, but their effect is. They are encountered in underground structures. They have a patient wisdom. They attack and eat people/humanoids. When they attack they generally don’t fly per se, as they just kind of fall onto their single intended victim. Their food selection is not dependent on appearance, weakness, or the rank in marching order or any particular thing, but when they move they move as one single group. Creatures with more than 2 arms or 2 legs would certainly not be a target; this would be hard to determine for a party member, and is for DM info.

Each Lostling of a Jury has just 3-5 hit points. Each Lostling causes 3-5 (claw/claw/bite) damage. However there are generally 20-30 Lostlings in an attacking Jury.

During the attack of a Jury, the Lostlings move about the victim quickly, nipping and scratching. This causes huge amounts of disorientation even to a seasoned adventurer. Lostlings will cover the eyes of the victim with their incredibly black wings, blinding them. They are small enough to get into cracks of armor, under armor causing the victim to strike themselves in an attempt to stop the small pains. Almost always in the dark underground this will cause the victim to flee and run in a random direction for a random amount of time. Of course it is nearly impossible for a humanoid to remain silent and will begin to scream from the constant and seemingly random bites and scratches. When one or two of the Jury have been dispatched, the Jury will move to the head of the victim. The victim will likely continue in whatever activity the victim was engaged in that has killed a few Lostlings. It is assumed this is likely due to dropping weapon or whatever was in victims hand and striking themselves. If you hit yourself hard enough to cause 3-5 damage to a thing on your face, you will likely cause some amount of damage to your face. DM mileage may vary. They eat unconscious, but alive victims. Circle of life kids.

The only way for the attack to end is for the victim to move a distance to be determined by DM away from the initial point of attack. Divide your party as you choose. The Jury will select a place to stage the attack that is likely to be successful for them. They are not territorial. Lostlings move nearly silently when moving from place to place. And will lie in wait for days before choosing a new prey. They have complete confidence moving among creatures when going to a new place, as they are not patrolling, they are merely travelling to a different location and may walk or fly. Think of this as opossum intelligence.

Once the victim passed out from lack of hit points or struck themselves hard enough to cause unconsciousness, the attack will stop. The Jury will seek the darkest or highest point for them to observe the victim for 20 mins. Lostlings don’t have watches, but their evolution has taught them that it takes about that long for the coast to be clear so to speak. If no other humanoids show up, then they will eat the humanoid as a parakeet would, bite and tear. Some amount of time later the other non-hunting Lostlings will show up to join in the feast. If they are disturbed in the 20 min window they will abandon the prey. If others show up after the 20 mins, the family members will continue to eat while the Jury attacks a new single target.

When the prey is dead, it is abandoned. The Jury wont eat again for several weeks, as people is slow to digest. They do not attack out of spite or vengeance or disturbance. They are animal in intelligence and will deftly avoid conflict by mere avoidance.

clothespin flatside

never seen anyone do this. the gator mouth side of a clothes pin can often be too strong and bend the plastic as well as its not flat. I turned the spring around and moved it into that notch.

the grip is not so tight and the clamping end is flat. this is a WIP suicide car bomb that will eventually be part of the dio. It was a monogram 1:24 dupont lumina jeff gordon 24 car. It won't look anything like that when I'm done.

plastic model modeling toolsscratch built model

super prediction

to be deleted unless I hit it right on...

33 patriots 31 falcons

Discoveries about town, Janes Market

I was doing some shopping and I heard a man and his speaking in a non-native language. The language could have been Arabic and ended up being so, but it was a bit sing-songy for the brief listen, and I had seen a thing about doing some sprouts anyway. So I asked this man, "Pardon me sir (do you grey poupon, no) would you happen to be Indian and would you happen to know of an Indian store?" He replied, "no, and janes market" I thanked the man.
That was all I needed, googleized, discovered it was close and off I went to discover what could possibly be in the Indian store in San Bernardino.

Some photos follow. I purchased about $30 worth of stuff, some known things, like the green peas, white peas and mung beans (this is the white sprout common in 'Chinese food') and some a mystery, like what is methri or kala chan or masoor dal or chana dal? all the containers in the photo below were priced between 4 and 6 dollars.

The things I knew, mustard, peas, and mung all went into containers for sprouts. sprouts are amazing, blah blah, everyone knows and I am forever perplexed that many people think they sound authoritative by saying sprouts are so good for you like they did the research themselves etc. anyway...  this purchase should be enough for a couple months of a weekly rotation of sprouts. I combined the peas and the mung together because they all sprout at very nearly the same rate and would be a tastier all mixed together for my use as a salad additive or on taco's or as a garnish for soups whatever, you can't go wrong with sprouts. For the last couple of years, I have had a pretty consistent supply of sunflower sprouts going, so this will be a nice change. the photo below is the second day, 1-day jar soak and 1 day on soil.

Back at Janes Market, I visited again today. Not really to buy anything but to discover what I missed and figure out what it was. I went thru every row and aisle, its a small store but like sprouts, packed full of goodness! I asked the owner if I could take some photos so I could figure out what I was looking at and she agreed. Fabulous! Photos for research follow, but by the by, most of what I did not know what it was, is a chickpea. Chickpea is a familiar enough word, but they are not a part of my diet and after a google search or two and some reading I think I will be adding them in. The photos that follow are certainly not all that the store has to offer, but what piqued my interest. They have a wide assortment of teas and veggies that remain unexplored for the moment.

I also saw these products that seem interesting. Granted its an MRE. At this point its exploratory. Most of these packages are $2.50 they have a great variety. Some of the directions said to add cooked rice, easy enough. I will give these a try soon, they seem perfect for lunch at work.

I would love to read about what you do with chickpeas, mung beans or mustard seed. I'm super excited to make my own mustard as well as sprouts. Have you been to this store? let me know if you go, that would be awesome.

special consultant, Baker 50 - -Thank you

Whatever is has already been, and what will be has been before

Things are falling from the sky.

Water, old leaves, and destruction causing winds are active in the wilds. For the most part our gardens are solemn nearly serene places, protected from the harsh winds and falling debris from larger dying vegetation.

Cutting back of our plants simulates these damages. Plants are accustomed to this and I dare say, puts the plant into a mode to be ready for regrowth when the time is right.

However, the part that may be missing from your container garden is the amount of concentrated debris that should be falling.

Time to Mulch

Make sure to include topping off with mulch when you winterize your plants. Below is a photo of a successful tomato plant.


The photo shows the rootball and soil that just came out of the 5 gallon bucket. This bucket is the inside bucket of a 2 bucket reservoir system that I grow most of my chili and tomato in. When it was in the bucket it was topped by 6" of mulch that was topped up every so often thru the growing season. The mulch I generally use is the wood chips that go on sale at home depot every year. When they get to the 1 dollar range I buy enough so that when winter comes (now) I can top off my containers.



This photo shows a Black Krim Tomato that was grown from seed. The fruit here are part of the last harvest of 2016 (which is today) When the plant was transferred to the 2 buckets (last spring) the plant was about 8 inches tall. It was transplanted flush with the soil in the bucket and then 5 to 6 inches of mulch was put around it to top off the bucket.



Lastly this is Fatali and Serrano after they have been winterized. In the pan is the total of the harvest for today. The addition of the mulch on top will create heat for the plant by creating a new home for microbial life, protect your plants roots from extremes and perhaps even fix your garden itch.

No time like the present, Go Mulch!

Freeze in SB tonight

I know this is late, but the forecast is to be near freezing tonight. IF your plants are still viable then the best course of action is to cover it with a sheet or if possible put it in a shelter. the rest of the week should not be a problem, but tonight 12-25-16 at approximately 4 am it is possible that the air temp will be at 32°. About a year ago this occurred on 1-1-16 and none of my peppers or tomato survived.

So if you are building bike's or sticking stuff under the tree, take a moment to put a sheet, that is all that should be necessary over your plants and they should be fine.

Merry Christmas and garden on! (beevis riff)

weather underground 

Pills & Peppers

I don't know how old people do it. There is the once a day pill, the twice a day pill, the 3 times weekly except saturdays that are an odd date pills. Its astounding anyone lives beyond 30.

Tomorrow, I'll be roasting and canning 80 pounds of jalapeño.  I will try to make a video of the process that is enjoyable and informative. Tonight the kitchen gets a top-down major scrub of every surface in prep for the canning. 

This forms the basis of my salsa. My salsa has no tomato, onion or anything other than peppers. The jalapeño are purchased at deep discount, usually 3 pounds for a dollar, roasted and canned. Then in the coming summer, as the hot peppers fruit up and there is just a few of them, after picking, they are roasted or boiled in some water and added to the base.

Pepper aficionados that have had the salsa prepared this way love it. The un-initiated tend to fear anything I make afterwards. No gotcha's coming from my kitchen, but it seems my tolerance is pretty high and I don't notice the burn. The salsa is built for flavor and heat.

When I need salsa and there are no ripe fruit, Im not above heading to the local market and getting some habs to add to the base, but even a serrano from the garden is more flavorful than those.

There will be a fire tomorrow in SanBerdu and it will be my roaster! For now, back to the cleaning.