Autumn! Good time of the year for improved leaf tasking! My blog topic is a DIY plywood leaf pusher. It's related to my raking leaves blog articles and parody videos (widescreen, scrolling text).
My leaf pusher at the time of the parodies was a Rubbermaid dustpan,
still flexible, uncracked, and unbroken after years of leaf pile
gathering and compressing. (For smallish piles, I still use the
dustpan.)
My inspiration for my plywood presser pusher is
"How To Rake (Bag) Leaves - the EASY WAY!", starting just before the 5-minute mark, where he shows his leaf presser. He used
plywood, drilled holes, and attached cabinet handles. BTW, I advise
skipping the part about drilling holes in trash receptacle and also
using plastic bags. (Plastic is not acceptable for yard waste or compost
pickups.)
The Home Depot door handle I used is no longer available. You can view similar door handles
on the web. BTW, I think each handle with one hole at each end is
adequate and more economical than two holes at each end. Another
suggestion: Rather than using the wood screws that come in the package,
use machine screws and nuts for securing the handles to the plywood. (I
used 3/4" screws, washers, and hex nuts.)
My info is advisory. You can decide to skip using a template or
preplanning. After mulling a few template shapes (rectangular, circular,
octagonal, stop sign), I made the 11" x 15" rectangular plywood presser
pusher so that it'd fit in a lawn/leaf bag that measured 11 1/2" x 16"
but also fit into a typical round, 32-gallon plastic trash can.
If you choose to make your own plywood presser pusher for leaves, be
careful about safety WRT power tools, splinters, sawdust, rakes, and
tripping. Watch the video before and during the project, pausing as sensible. Good luck! Let me know what you made and how it's working out for you!
Plywood Resources
I referred to my plywood as being 3/8" thick. I recall that wood
dimensions tending to not be actual measured sizes. A resource with
table info is "Actual Plywood Thickness and Size". The actual thickness is 11/32". Not easy to measure 1/32" difference.
If you do night sky observing or astrophotography, you learn that
your eyes adapt to the night sky, but bright lights quickly thwart the
vision. Using red lighting is suitable for seeing objects and retaining
the night vision. Use a clear plexiglass sheet over a laptop screen to
achieve a night-sky user friendly interface.
If using a laptop during a session at night, some software tools have
night settings—changing white background to dark, and text to red. The
user can vision-adapt to the night sky or continue to not have night
vision disturbed. Other nearby astronomers can also be retain their
night vision.
Our rather old and lower-end laptop has limited capabilities for
night sky adaptations. The keys don't have red displays. The astronomy
software tools are not commercially developed specialized packages, but
open-source tweak-it-yourself tools.
Our Laptop Screen Fix—Red Overlaying
We picked the clear red plexiglass (details farther down, more
elaboration in the YouTube video). The minimal fix would have been to
order the best-dimensions pre-cut sheet and simply lay it over the
screen.
With an eye for frugality, we trimmed excess height, saving a piece
for possible future project(s). With consideration for secure fastening,
then drilled small holes for shoelacing the larger piece to the laptop
screen. View the video for guidelines on our overlay fix for the laptop
screen.
Laptop Screen Overlay Candidates
Online, we researched getting a clear red overlay for placing in
front of the laptop screen during astrophotography. Ideas for
See-through red screening included the following:
Red cellophane that florists use
Acrylic sheets from Michael's and Hobby Lobby
Acetate (polypropylene) sheets at Michael's
Rubylith (photographic plastic)
Red tail-light tape
Clear red plexiglass
After consideration, most of the items have downsides, which I cover farther down the article. First, the winner!
Also known as plexiglass, lucite, or perspex, acrylic is a
popular and versatile plastic for many applications. It is a common
substitute for glass as it is crystal clear, lighter, more shatter
resistant and easy to work with. Acrylic sheets can be laser cut or saw
cut, as well as machined with routers, drills and sanders.
The webpage provides good pricing info for the multiple precut
dimensions and thicknesses. (We picked 12 x 18 for laptop fit.) Other
interactive webpage options included custom dimensions, holes, edge
finishings, and shipping priorities.
Translucent red plexiglass red acrylic,with 2 pieces
of red acrylic sheet,This acrylic resin has excellent optical stability
and uniform thickness.
The term translucent nudged us away, along with two negative reviews that indicated shortcomings of using the product.
The No-go Reds
The other red transparent items under consideration were food for thought, but didn't seem suitable enough.
Red Cellophane Wrap, Used By Florists
It took some doing to find out what the item was called. Wound up
with reasonable finds when googling "Cellophane wrapping paper for
floral arrangements" and "floral arrangement red transparent wrapping
mylar sheets". AI showed reasonable info for the product—"red
transparent wrapping mylar sheets, often called red cellophane wrap"
An Amazon find further helped with info—"Vanhench Red Cellophane Wrapping Paper, ...". Color and transparency were winning points, however, the product looked too flimsy and scrunchy.
Acrylic Sheets from Michael's and Hobby Lobby, Acetate (polypropylene) Sheets at Michael's
These products are bundled with additional color sheets and tend to
be smaller than laptop screen sizes. It didn't look feasible to buy
package deals to obtain a onesie-twosie (red) item.
Rubylith, Used in Photography Masking
In the distant past, I used rubylith for printed circuit board
artwork layout, particularly analog circuitry. Technology has long made
manual layout obsolete; however, photographers and artists still buy the
product.
Rubylith consists of two films sandwiched together. The
bottom layer is a clear polyester backing sheet; the top layer is a
translucent, red (ruby) coloured sheet. The top layer can be cut and
peeled away from the bottom layer.
Idea discarded—
Color translucency reduces clarity and readability of screen info.
Colored sheet could be easily damaged, letting light bleed through and reducing effectiveness for user.
Red taillight Lens Repair Tape
The tape comes in about 2" width rolls. We considered taping a small
piece onto a scrap piece of 7 mil clear mylar to test transparency. Even
if the small sample looked OK, idea of pulling and taping SEVERAL
aligned rows was not appealing. Also, transparency might less than
optimal because of tape's intended use on taillights.
Advisory Webpages for Buying, Cutting, and Drilling Plexiglass
"How to easily drill plexiglass, lexan and acrylic sheets", 3:10
My gist:Clamp plexiglass to scrap board, then use step drill
or twist drill with tape protection and lubricant. Additional drilling considerations--slowness, light pressure.
"Simple Solutions: Tips for Drilling Through Plexiglass", 0:44 My gist:Sandwich plexiglass between two layers of
quarter-inch plywood ... mark the holes ... line plexiglass with plywood
... drill right through all three layers.
Related: Keyed-in text and image of PLASKOLITE Plastic Cutter for cutting plexiglass.
Starting out viewing the night sky? This article briefly describes three items recommended for beginner astronomers (recent astronomy club presentation Navigating the Night Sky). Resources for more info follow.
Planisphere—a handheld flat, circular item for identifying stars and
constellations that are visible in the night sky for specific time and
date
Star atlas (aka sky atlas)—a map of the night sky, to locate and
identify celestial objects. Can be in book or chart form that maps the
positions of stars, constellations, and other celestial objects in the
night sky.
Stellarium—free open-source planetarium software that provides 3D simulation of the night sky
Planisphere, Star/Sky Atlas
This section covers both planispheres and star/sky atlas' because of interrelatedness in Google results.
YouTube video— "How to use a Planisphere" (9:09), latitude version shown—40° to 50°
From video description:
Step by step instructions on using a planisphere for
locating objects in the night sky. This is a useful tool in astronomy
for locating constellations and other notable features.
Stellarium is free software for Windows, Mac, or Linux. Download from main page https://stellarium.org
Stellarium is a free open source planetarium for your
computer. It shows a realistic sky in 3D, just like what you see with
the naked eye, binoculars or a telescope.
Note the system requirements to ensure if you can install on your device.
Read features section to discover sky items to see, when you can see them, and various other info. (Before you look for sky objects, you must set the tool for where you are and the date/time.)
"How to Stargaze" includes handy titled sections as follows:
Stargazing for Beginners
Start by Looking Up
Locate the Big Dipper
Locate Other Bright Star Patterns
Helpful Stargazing Tools
Star Charts or Stargazing Apps
Grab Binoculars
Borrow a Telescope
8″ Dobsonian telescopes with very good eyepieces and all the needed
accessories to have a good visual observing experience or to test your
next scope upgrade!
My previous topic was a New Mexico century plant, a peewee compared
to the Americana this time around. I'd pic'ed the peewee in 2012 and
forgot about the images. Peek into "Forgotten Fotos of New Mexico
Century Plant (2012)" (video, article)
besides diving into the giant century plant (pix from spring 2009. I'd
recently looked into a folder named "Ancient" and found these images.
I took the Americana pix in 2009 starting from the end of March to
end of June, mostly weekly. The first eye-catch was the stalk starting
to grow upward. The plant had reached about 10' high already. By early
May, it already reached 20' and displayed branches and flower clusters.
The following resources provide some basic orientation of the Americana century plant:
Once the century plant has completed its blooming process,
it gradually begins to start dying off. ... it puts all its energy into
producing a spectacular flowering stalk just once in its lifetime,
before gracefully bowing out.
"What to Do When Your Agave Blooms"
provides overall info about the BIG EVENT. The site shows a partial
close up view of stalk with flower clusters. The flowery display, if
similar to my pix of most-robust clusters, indicates the show to be
within 80% complete.
I still have agave pix I'd taken over several years that I plan to
blog about. This one century plant project brought back memories of
having seen numerous agaves bloom. Alas, the 2023 Arborgeddon seemed to
have killed off many of them. FWIW, I have not spotted rising century
plant stalks or branchings like I used to several consecutive years.
Last month I perused my computer for images of sky objects,
predominantly moon shots. During my file manager tour, I ran across a
series of pix of a smallish century plant that inspired me to make it
this month's topic. It already showed its stalk pointing upward from its
base of leaves, aka rosette. The stalk's branches and bloom clusters
progressively grew in quantity and size.
2000 or 2012?
The pix date stamps indicated March 2 through May 8 2020. I went down
the wrong garden path when I considered the pix to be from 2000. My
title would have been a spiffy-sounding " Y2K Century Plant, 25YO
Forgotten Fotos". I kept getting some naggy feeling about time frame, so
to speak. I happened to also spot a folder that I apparently did some
low-level edits, such as rotating, then resaving to png. Those images
had date stamps of July 4 through September 8 2012.
I pored over folders and camera-issued sequence IDs. The agave pix
numbered from 1875 through 2077 (year saved, 2000). I recalled that I
have some pics with 1861, 1862, and 1866 numbers for sequence. The saved
date was June 28, 2012. I ran across some other pix in the number
sequence neighborhood, but they had 2000 for save year.
Google Maps Nudging Time Frame
I poked around Google maps to find the address where I'd seen the
plant. I saw the most recent property image from April 2024, but also
saw images from March 2022, July 2019, February 2015, April 2011, June
2009, and Dec 2007. Lucky me! The agave showed up in 2007, 2009, and
2011. However, it was nonexistent in 2015, 2019, and 2022.
I decided that July 2012 was reasonably more likely a time frame for
my set of pix than 2000. A small brain nudge was a Google image screen
capture July 4 2012—good enough for me to consider that date as an
origin.
How Special Was this Agave?
What was so special? It was smallish, shorter than some other century
plants that have rosettes taller than people and seemingly wider than a
roundish car. This agave was a peewee that I could approach closely,
its height maybe only 8' high. The diameter of the base (rosette) was
about the diameter of a manhole cover. An oddity I've not seen before or
since is the stalk's initial angle about 33° from the rosette, then its
continued growth aiming skyward.
I searched the web for smallish agaves. Two sources had images and
descriptions that lead me to conclude it was a New Mexico agave.
"New Mexico Century Plant (Agave)" includes rudimentary info resembled my specimen. The following physical info piqued my curiosity:
Note: The images of the rosettes do not show stalks. Thinking
that the height dimensions refer to distance from the ground to the tips
of the tallest leaf/leaves.
Agave parryi subsp. neomexicana is an ornamental succulent
that forms rosettes of ascending, lance-shaped, gray-green leaves with
sharp teeth along the margins and a dark brown terminal spine. The
rosettes grow up to 1.5 feet (45 cm) tall and 2 feet (60 cm) in
diameter, usually accompanied by offsets around the base. Leaves are up
to 1.5 feet (45 cm) long and 2.4 inches (6 cm) wide. This subspecies has
slightly thinner, shorter leaves than Agave parryi subsp. parryi. Also,
it has more open rosettes, larger flowers, and a greener, less glaucous
coloration.
The mature rosettes, 8 to 20 years, send up an up to 10 feet
(3 m) tall spike adorned with tufts of flowers on many lateral
branches, usually in summer. The flowers are yellow to yellowish-green
and red to orange in bud. Fruits are oblong, up to 1.4 inches (3.5 cm)
long capsules with black seeds. The rosettes die after setting fruits.
Some time, I plan to do one or more pic tour of an americana century
plant. I just rediscovered a folder of such pics from 2009! More
recently, I collected daily pics of a century plant in 2017 from March 7
to May 5.
The pix in my YouTube collection
are from having used mostly two point-and-shoot cameras. Incidentally,
smart-phone cameras also have capabilities for taking similar sky pix.
For people who haven't considered photographing sky objects, look, up in the sky. It could be Supermoon! Build your own pic collection for day or night moons! Also, pick other sky objects that catch your fancy.
I recently perused my cloud account for pix I've uploaded there
within maybe 10 years. One folder that caught my
eye—"NearSkyObjects-Canon PowerShot ELPH 190 IS". It consisted of eight
images from 2020 and six in 2021. I poked through my computer listings,
seeing additional sky images I could include in my slide show.
Most images are of the moon—day, night, various phases. Several are
in plant views. The final item is my time-lapse slide show of May 16
2022 lunar eclipse. Final tally of my sky objects for this blog topic is
23. (The count does not include YT videos from 2023 and 2024.)
A mysterious title, eh? The cake is a followup to "Raspberry Con-fusion Cake".
I "deconfusioned" by using the amount of gelatin fluid I intended
originally—1/2 cup of water and 1/2 cup of milk into a bowl with a packet of
sugar-free raspberry gelatin. The newer cake tastes as good as the first
one, nice density and no crumbliness. The layers' heights don't seem
much different.
During the six days of consumption, the newer-version cake was consistently moist and without the frosting becoming more gooey.
If you try a similar gelatin with cake recipe, this one is improved.
If you happen to follow the gelatin's directions for gelatin instead of
halving the liquid, the result won't be a disaster. Consider consuming
the cake in less time before frosting gooeyness. I don't recall the rest
of the downsides of the first cake; I don't plan to repeat my mistake.
Calories and Sodium
Note: Using sugared Jello instead of sugar-free HCF adds about 320
extra calories (~27 C/svg) and 320 extra mg of sodium (~27 C/svg) to the
cake. Between the two sugar-free brands, the amount of calories is
negligible. The amount for sodium is more significant. The following
abbreviated table compares calories and sodium for HCF, Royal, and Jello
raspberry gelatins.
I missed putting out a Valentine item in February. March roared in
like a lion. I'm beating April Fool's Day with my Valentine-theme video
and article. Inspiration started with kin's visit on February 14.
The relatives brought flowers. I'd baked Valentine theme cookies
made from Red Velvet and Strawberry cake mixes. I searched for kiddie
Valentine cards and found one card, no envelope. A few days later, after
they'd left, I found a stack hiding in plain sight.
My journey in creating the Valentine blog theme started out small,
but became gargantuan when I collected hearty items to group together,
created kid-like artsy photographable items, and integrated videos in my
mix. The journey was quite an adventure in inspiration, organization,
and implementation.
Heart Use as a Verb
Hearting is an obscure but increasingly creeping use of heart as a
verb. Creeping, as in slowly moving, not creepy as nervousness inducing.
Consider "I heart NY" and "I heart radio", which seem normal in use of
heart as verb. As a thought, maybe "I heart [something]" can seem less
tension than the "L" wprd.
Indoor Shots
My video includes indoor images and also outdoor images. I got in
touch with my inner creative child for cutouts, punches, arrangements. I
also rustled up images for Valentine cookies that I'd baked
occasionally over many years. BTW, cake mix amounts in boxes have
downsized over the years that cookie dough dollops were less mannerly
this time around.
Outdoor Shots
I mentioned creeping use of heart as verb. A piece of my video shows a
hybrid of Halloween creep and hearty Valentine approach. Numerous other
outdoorsy shots include archives of heart-shaped prickly pear plants
from February 2010 and also February 2025. Eh, the 2010 ones were more
plentiful and cuter; the more recent environment wasn't as, uh,
fruitful. For my non-prickly pear plant shot, the red bud tree with a heart-shaped bloom had caught my eye.
What arose when the sun set down at the dark site we went to? Dark
skies and objects (constellations, star clusters, nebulae, ...) that
don't show up well in light-pollution, densely populated areas. What
three items am I talking about? A TV tray table, a transparent cookbook stand, and a thin, portable gaming monitor.
We met with another astronomy photographer (AKA astrophotographer) at
a dark site, both parties for a nebula 1000 light years away. Our
friend stayed long enough to also photograph a set of galaxies 60
million light years away. BTW, astrophotography is not merely taking one
pic and seeing loads of details. Each session for each target tends to
take hours, sometimes multiple sessions, specialized equipment for
taking out-of-the-world pix, and cooperative climate conditions.
Portable Gaming Monitor
Our friend showed a new acquisition for showing audience members at
outreach events—a portable gaming monitor that he read about in a NYT
Wirecutter article, maybe "The Best Monitors". Arzopa seems eye-poppingly low cost, compared to other reviewed monitors. "Arzopa Z1FC 144Hz Portable Gaming Monitor Review"
lists the measurements as 8.2 by 14.9 by 0.5 inches, weighing 1.7
pounds. (The traditional dimension reference is 16.1 (corner to corner).
Table Slots Between Slats a Hindrance to Stable Monitor Support
Anyway, he is understandably concerned about the monitor's thin
foldable corner support falling through slots on his display table
(square with narrow gaps between slats). Noting the monitor's thinness, I
mentioned having a plastic, transparent cookbook stand that would
probably work with such a monitor.
Another idea was trying a different table. I thought of our foldable TV tray table
that measures 14.5 x 19 and has no gap hazards. BTW, Google images
search shows good results for "acrylic cookbook stands" and "foldable TV
trays". BTW, a quick, low-effort, low-cost solution to preventing
monitor support fall-through, using a square piece of cardboard the same
size as the square table would help.
Music Stand as Monitor Support? Nah!
An idea for stable displaying of the monitor briefly arose—using a
music stand. It has variable height and tilt adjustments and horizontal
lip. Downsides, however, are heaviness from metal weight and feet that
take up space during transport. Furthermore, securing a monitor to avoid
tipping or toppling it is concerning.
Musing Monitor Support Using No-slat TV Tray Table and Cookbook Stand
The next day, I thought about taking pix showing my cookbook stand
and TV tray table. I took a set of pix—one of the stand (with open
book) atop the table, one with additional items, and several showing
different-angle views.
It occurred to me that I had the makings of a blog topic that
included some idea exchanges about items not specific to astronomy.
Also, I got to thinking of how to organize and create a helpful
slide-show video.
Besides Monitor Musings
Some additional items in the video are are a yardstick and a set of trekking poles. The yardstick provides dimensional references. The
sticks were mentioned during the imaging session. FWIW, a dark site can
be challenging for those unfamiliar with the terrain. Even more
challenging is navigating after the sun goes down. Better to have sticks
and not need them than need them and not have them.
Update: Additional Info After Video's Upload on Feb 28 2025
After publishing the blog article and uploading the movie, our friend
sent an image of his table and portable gaming monitor with the
monitor's support leg. His fix for possible leg fall-through was a
bottle cap.
A bottle cap does the job for the leg and the display is too thick to slide through. The [table's] gap actually cradles the bottom of the display! ... I added a couple of bits of foam insulation to the bottle cap to keep the leg centered in it.
The video's thumbmail shows the initial suggestion, the friend's pic,
and additional ideas. The newer items include bungee cords for better
securing a monitor for display and avoiding pit falls.
I wanted to Kool-Aid my cake using Raspberry Kool-Aid, but the
supermarket didn't carry that flavor. I thought about using Jello, maybe
make a poke cake.
Fortunately, I found info for helping integrate raspberry gelatin and
cake in a non-pokey way. The result was my raspberry con-fusion cake
(details farther down).
No Hokey Pokey Cake for Me, but Something Else
When I read elsewhere that a poke cake would deteriorate in a few
days, I abandoned the idea. Besides short life, the recipe looked like
more work than I wanted to do. I later thought about making something
with raspberry gelatin and cake. Did some poking around supermarket
prices and availability. Jello's small size cost nearly as much as the family size. I noticed that the store carries both Royal and Hill Country Fare raspberry sugar-free brands.
I found a few resources to use gelatin in cake besides making poke
cakes. Several commenters recommended merely following the cake box's
instructions and mixing in the gelatin powder. I've run across info
about enhancing cakes by adding an extra egg and using milk instead of
water, In my zeal to try a few different details, I put in too much
fluid.
My Con-fusion
My con-fusion with this cake resulted from using the amount of fluid
called for if making a small gelatin batch. For integration into a cake,
I needed to put in only half the fluid. Regular instructions for
small-package gelatin calls for 1 cup of boiling water and 1 cup of cold
water. Normal box cake recipes call for 1 cup of water total. Sooo, I put too much fluid. I decided to just carry on and see how the cake turned out.
To adjust for too much fluid, I baked the cakes for several minutes
longer, hoping evaporation would help. The cake layers baked; the
toothpick test came out well. However, they did not rise. The finished
cake cut cleanly with no crumbs. The mouth-feel texture was dense, like
pound cake. Within the six days of consumption, the cake became more
moist, even watery. The frosting seemed to almost liquefy to saucy
consistency.
If inclined, Google "what happens if you add too much fluid to cake
batter". The next time I retry the recipe, I'll remember to use only
half the amount of fluid.)
The calories and sodium differ on whether you use sugar-free or sugared Jello gelatin powders.
Note: Using sugared Jello instead of sugar-free HCF adds about 320 extra
calories (~27 C/svg) and 320 extra mg of sodium (~27 mg/svg) to the
cake. Between the two sugar-free brands, the amount of calories is
negligible. The amount for sodium is more significant. The following
abbreviated table compares calories and sodium for HCF, Royal, and Jello
raspberry gelatins.
My profession had been technical writer/editor. Through TheWriteJob clublet (blog at http://thewritejob.blogspot.com), I have been exploring my inner creative writing, which includes mostly language enlightenment, entertainment, and a-muse-meant. Over time, I have become more active with images and my YouTube channel.
