We got nine cubic yards of compost for our raised beds. The dumptruck dumped it here on Monday. We have three 6x12 raised beds. It took me about an hour to fill up one of them. Then my neighbor drove over in his back hoe. That's him, above. He filled the other two in five minutes. Wow!
I got connections!
Now to figure out what to plant! We're using the rest of the compost for planting flowers along the side of the house.
Very envious. Wish I was gardening again. Haven't even spent anytime at my weekend home in Northern Pennsylvania since I made a pledge to myself this year to make a concentrated effort to getting into The New Yorker. Only sold one. Coming up with ten cartoons a week while doing my day job of illustration has proved to be more than I can handle.
ReplyDeleteYour previous post before was helpful: didn't realize Better Homes is out. Ugh. Didn't know the Good Housekeeping situation. Ugh. And as for the websites running cartoons, I see that as a problem. Shouldn't everyone be receiving additional $ in those cases (on the Spectator site, the 2nd cartoon of a "cliche" is mine)? My illustrations earn me an additional 10% or more when reprinted online.
Bob Eckstein
A neighbor with a backhoe?!
ReplyDeleteHow come I just get the grumpy old man next door?!
A neighbor with a backhoe?!
ReplyDeleteHow come all I get is a grumpy old man next door?!
Bob (Snowman), much good luck on getting into The Nyer mag. Regardless of your success, you will produce a lot of cartoons that you should try and sell elsewhere.
ReplyDeleteMark, yeah we have a neighbor with a back hoe! He also has a friend with a dumptruck ready to go when we decide to pour a couple more tons of gravel on our driveway. I'm in rural heaven!
Thank you, Mike. I started sending the extra work and sold some of them...for prices ranging from £60 to $10. The key to success, (in my skewed opinion) in cartooning is not to rely solely on individual sales and I've been working on a couple of cartoon books and regular stuff (I'm also working on mugs and calendars). There's simply no way to live piece by piece today without branching out because many clients of mine are paying me the same as I got in the early '80s.
ReplyDeleteMore importantly, how's it going with the dirt? Last year when I had a few yards dumped in my yard for gardening I thought it was the worst decision in my life, underestimating the amount of work it was to move it...and not having a neighbor next door with a back-hoe.
You're right, Bob. Diversification is the key to success.
ReplyDeleteWe still can't plant due to frost warnings, but that'll change in a couple weeks.
Did you see that interesting article today in Times about moss instead of grass ("Moss Makes a Lush, No-Care Lawn")?
ReplyDeleteAdding this to my list of things to do if I ever return to my yard (I got two acres in Northeastern PA of heavily deer-damaged woods with a postage stamp size yard off the patio).
I don't care too much about the yard and the grass. If the grass gets too high, I'm buying goats.
ReplyDelete