Ferry Morse Seed Company - No More

My dear friend, Sista, posted an interesting article about our country's loss of Ferry Morse Seed Company.  Gobbled up, and the employees kicked out the door.  If you have a moment, please read her brief article and the links she's included.  We need more people to understand what is happening to our agriculture and just as important, our personal access to quality non GMO produce and seeds.

Welcome to the Hen House

When is it too early to turn in?

I'm serious, what do you consider to be too early? 

I hit the sack last night at 7:30pm, and then slept until 7:00am.  I can hardly believe it.  I usually sleep until around 5am.  Of course, the old sprained foot isn't much help, and now my left leg hurts from compensating for the right foot, my armpits and arms hurt from the crutches.  I guess I'm just tuckered out!

Then again, there is not a darn thing on the boob tube, of which I don't watch much anyway, I usually read, but I couldn't keep my eyes open last night.

Throw in that I'll be 45 next month, and I guess I'm turning in to my grandparents.  Early to bed, early to rise (except on a rare occasion like this morning) makes a person healthy (healing the bad foot), wealthy (not so much thanks to the economy) and wise (definitely getting wiser as I get older).

The Feet are Up, Sort of

If you read yesterday's post, you'll know that I did some fancy dancing at The Compound yesterday, and sprained my foot.  Thought I broke the thing when it happened, but I can put some weight on it.  Hurts like the dickens!

Our home office is on the 2nd floor, I'm relegated to working from the dining room table as steps are impossible.  All of this sitting around, when I'm not hobbling to the kitchen out of boredom to see what's in the fridge, has made me really think about our medical supplies prepping.  The Moose went in to the attic this morning in search of his old crutches.  Guess what?  He's 6', I'm a puny 5'4-1/2".  They won't work for me, unless a miraculous occurrence happens and my torso grows another 6".  Trust me, you can not make crutches that are too tall for you work!  It's impossible, and would likely cause me to hurt something else, and I don't need the added pain.  So it's off to buy a pair that will work for me. 

We have band aids, aspirin, ointments, alcohol, peroxide, ace bandages, etc.  Quite a bit too, but never thought of crutches.  Did this item cross your mind for long term planning? If not crutches, then a cane? Something to help you hobble around may be needed.  Well, now the Moose and I will have matching pairs, as soon as he gets back from the pharmacy.

Perseverance

Word of the day:  perseverance.  It's what we need at the moment!  We headed out to The Compound today to check on things.  Beryl paid a visit to North Florida, and the outer bands have been passing through Central Florida with wind and minimal rain, at least in our area.  Nothing out of the ordinary, just a couple of palm fronds down in the yard, no big deal.

We were however, devastated to find around 20 or so Egrets and Storks in our pond.  Yes, the pond that holds our Tilapia!  They're awesome to watch, but NOT when they are in your stocked pond. We've not had any issues with birds in the pond for the past 2 years, but now we do.  What is the solution?  Don't know.  If you have any suggestions, please let me know.  The best idea we could come up with was cutting down some more palm fronds and floating them in the pond, to give the fish an area to hide from the birds. 

Then to top it off, we still have animals eating the ripe tomatoes off the plants and leaving a mess in their wake.  We also have a huge bug problem.  Anything and everything that eats leaves and the fruit have descended upon my garden!

We need to persevere.  I know people who would walk away from this challenge, but not the Moose and me.  On went the garden dust.  We were still able to leave with a basket full of produce, so I'll count my blessings.

We also let the Class of 2012 out of the coop for a couple of hours.  We had to get the Moms and Dad out first, and they were not happy.  One of the Moms got in, and she didn't waste anytime trying to exude her dominance.  Poor little bugger lost a chunk of newly grown feathers before the Moose was able to get the hen back out of the run.  The little one's sure enjoyed themselves.  At first they wouldn't even come out of their coop, but once they figured out that scratching, flying, running and eating would be involved, they were happy campers.

I left The Compound with a sprained foot, and will spend the next day or so with the foot elevated.  Have a good week!  Thanks for following along.

Brazen Bee Snatchers!

Just imagine, after working your derriere off for years, let’s say 58 to be exact.  Building anything; a farm, a business, bee hives, etc.  You’ve gained experience, knowledge, have blood and sweat, let’s not forget money, into your product or your dream.  You’re so good at what you do; others want you to teach them what you know.  

You leave for what should be an enjoyable family wedding weekend.  You return to see your life blood gone!  Stolen, missing in action, nowhere to be found.  How would you feel?  Would there be words to explain it?  Would you be able to actually speak those words if your mother was around? I know my heart would sink, I’d have sleepless nights, and probably run through a box of tissues or two.

I read a story and watched a video that makes me angry on many levels.  In this story, the Illinois Dept. of Agriculture confiscated Mr. Ingram’s property, his beehives.  They claimed his bees had a disease;  foulbrood. He received a notice and set up a date in court to fight it. No warrant was issued.  That’s called an illegal search and seizure.  The best part, no one knows or is admitting where they are or if they’ve been destroyed. They seized his property 3 weeks before the scheduled hearing to determine the next course of action. Mr. Ingram makes an interesting case, and is better watched on video than by me summarizing. 

http://www.pacc-news.com/5-2-12/heart_ingram5_2_12.html

The critical part about the story is his own research of 15 years about CCD, Colony Collapse Disorder.  He had some Queens he believed had built up immunity to Roundup.  He was working to develop more Queens, divide swarms and see if he could create hives that were immune.  Now his work and bees are gone.

Can you imagine the knowledge he’s accumulated over the years?  What I wouldn’t give to spend a few days under his tutelage.  

Busy Little Bees!

First, we didn’t get as much rain as we had hoped, maybe a total of a ½ to 1”.  I’ll take what we can get, but when we were watching the radar, it seemed like we got hammered.  It did save me the time of watering the garden, and the mushrooms have started popping up all throughout the garden, which is a sign the mulch is composting as it should.

I picked another basket full of veggies.  Nothing better than home grown!  We also have tiny watermelons and cantaloupe on the vine.  I planted some more lettuce, squash, melons and strawberry popcorn.  We’ll see how they do, now that we are moving into the hot summer months.

We saddled up another hen this past week; Apple Brown “Betty”.  She was looking very rough, with a patch of red skin showing.  The other hens we took care of a few weeks back, are finally growing some feathers back.

The Hooligan’s Class of 2012 are really growing, and it seems all in the legs.  They are so excited to see the Moose and I.  Of course we bring them cold watermelon and red grapes!  Spoiled!

Finally, the bees are amazing!  We just started them this past Wednesday afternoon, and by Saturday morning, they have almost one full bar of comb built.  I forgot my camera, and didn’t want to bother them again later, so sorry, no pictures of this little miracle.  Who would have thought they’d take less than 2 days?  Busy little bees!  I did get this simple video. 

I spent some time watching them, come and go.  When they leave they actually circle around the hive a couple of times, and then head off in a random direction.  Random for me, but I’m sure they knew where they were going.  The guard bees do come out and see what you’re up to.  I am still a bit intimidated around them, especially when you hear the loud buzzing from the hive, or one circling around your head! 

I gave them a small container with watered down honey on Wed., just to get them started.  It was completely dry!  Not even sticky.  I gave them some more, but will let them source their own pollen and nectar for honey making in the future.  I need to move the wall divider back to the end of the hive, this week, and then take a look and see if the Queen is laying eggs, and if so, how well she's doing.  If not, or poorly, then a new Queen needs to be ordered.

Have a good week!  Thanks for following along!

Finally a Green Thumb!

After some much needed, deep rooted rain this past week or so, I feel like our garden is finally reaching its potential.  Of course, if we could keep the raccoons from their open air buffet, we’d have a bigger return.

Up until recently the garden seemed very anemic.  Unless I added Miracle Grow, leaves turned yellow, and were thin.  Now take a look!  The only other thing I did differently was taking the wood chip bedding from the chicks and applying it at the base of my tomatoes.  I know, they say make sure it composts first, but it doesn't look like it hurt anything, and it didn't go directly at the roots of the plants, it had to work its way down through the mulch.  Maybe it finally made it to the root system?

 I may yet end up with enough tomatoes to actually try my hand at canning them.

Sopranos Arrived and I was Stung!

The Sopranos arrived today!  My Italian Honey Bees.  All 3lbs, or around 10K humming bees.  It's amazing how loud they are when all lumped together.

MDR, Modern Day Redneck was pontificating the other day about how we bloggers post, but have failed to post about our mistakes, and also was wondering if we've grown soft or just given up on prepping.  I am about to answer both of his questions;

First, I made a blunder while setting up my honey bees today.  I'll explain as I go.  Second, I want the honey bees to be an addition to our prepping, providing sweetener to food, minor wound care, and selling the extra honey, beeswax, making candles, lip balm, etc.  I need to make considerations for all possibilities. 

The post office called around lunch time today to let me know the Sopranos arrived, and they were in a hurry to have me pick them up.  I wish I could have a running video camera (you know the one's that are hidden in your sunglasses or a pin on your clothes) so you could have seen the faces I saw today.  I heard the "what are you going to do with bees?"  "What's in there?"  Bees I replied.  Now, I mean absolutely no offence, but I live in central Florida with a large Hispanic population, and I just love their language.  The response was "dios mio", or "oh my God".  It was funny.  Away we went, back to the Compound to get them established.

Side note;  not sure if you can see it or not in the photo of the bee box, but there is a lone honey bee on the OUTSIDE of the box.  He followed/stayed on this box all the way from Georgia.  Tenacious!

I've watched a video twice, read the "Beekeeping for Dummies" book at least twice, and I still made a rookie mistake.  You have to remove a small piece of wood at the top of the box, to access the sugar water can.  I did all this.  Then removed the can, but in the process of removing the can, I also lifted up a white tag, which is what holds the queen cage in place.  As I removed the can, the queen cage dropped in with the 10K bees!  Neither of the videos, or books prepared me for this.  My box of bees was different then what they were presenting.  Sounds like life, right?!

I didn't panic, I stopped, covered the box back up and the Moose helped me find a pair of tongs.  I needed to get the queen in the hive first, so that was my focus.  Then I had to remove a small cork from the queen cage.  I used a sheet rock screw, like a wine bottle opener, and pulled out the small cork.  I should have then been able to attach the cage to one of the top bars.

Second problem, the candy that was supposed to be behind the cork was all eaten away already.  The queens entourage already ate through it, and were on their way out, along with the queen.  I had to make a quick move to get the other 9,997 bees into the hive.  I did it!  I've read several options on how to introduce the queen;  either attach the cage on the hive bar, or open the cage up and let the queen out right away.  I guess we'll see how the latter option fairs as the choice was made for me today. Now, in a couple of days we'll peek back in there and see how things are progressing.  Hopefully the queen is still in residence, and they've started to build their combs.

O.K., now for the strange part.  I spent the better part of 15 or so minutes surrounded or working with 10K bees, and not once was I attacked, or did a bee try to sting me.  But, when I went back to our camper to put away some supplies a wasp/hornet swooped down and stung me in the face.  It can only happen to me!...  I'm OK, just some local stinging sensation.

As we left, the bees were doing what they should be.  Hanging out on the front of the hive sending out pheromones letting the bees know this was the new residence.

Crested Caracara  You have to take a look at this site, as this Falcon was at the Compound on our arrival this afternoon.  I've never seen one in the 7 years we've lived in Central Florida, and he was as tall as a turkey vulture standing nearby.  He was awesome to look at.

Look at What the Moose Drug In!

The Moose stopped off at a local produce house today, and brought home this GIGANTIC specimen of a watermelon!   I think it grew near a nuclear plant.  Reminds me of the produce Gilligan grew during an episode of Gilligan’s Island.  The seeds were radioactive and produced ginormous vegetables.  I guess you have to be old enough to remember that show.

Along with sweet corn, red grapes, (grapes are the Hooligan’s absolute favorite) a case of strawberries, and some peaches we are good to go.  These are things we either can't seem to grow, or grow enough of at this point.  Most of which is for the Hooligans, we get the leftovers.  They are truly spoiled.  Scarlett and Henrietta actually wait for the grapes, skipping the other morsels and even peek into the treat bag in search of them.   Hey, they know what they like.  You wouldn't have a clue that chickens could be picky eaters, until you have some of your own. 

Just wait until they get ahold of this watermelon.  The only thing that will remain is the green rind.

Pride and Some Prejudice

The Moose and I had a great weekend!  How can we tell?  We’re still tired and sore.  It's a reminder to us of how much work we accomplished over the weekend, and since it was Mother’s Day Sunday, most of our work was actually done on Saturday and we’re still sore.  We take pride in the fact we are not afraid to work.  Yes, we may complain, we get tired of the sore muscles and dirt under our nails, but we are deeply fulfilled knowing that our efforts are not in vain.

There’s nothing better than picking fresh veggies from your own garden, or collecting eggs from the Hooligans, or bringing home a vase full of sweet smelling roses.  There’s even satisfaction in eliminating another raccoon that saw fit to enter our garden paradise.

We take pride in raising out the Class of 2012 chicks, and now have them living resort style at the Compound.  All things on this front went well.  The only issue was the original Hooligans were none too happy.  They squawked all day Saturday, spent most of their time actually circling the coop and looking at the chicks.  I understand perfectly now, why you don’t just put them altogether right away.  It will be some time before we make that next move.

Since we have two of the best friends you could ask for, here’s where the prejudice comes in, we picked up a GIANT load of mulch and took it over to Fred & Peggy’s house and helped them offload it.  They were happy, and that makes us happy.  Thanks to Fred, for locking our keys in the truck.  Although it was an accident, and you were only trying to help fix the taillights on the trailer, you will not live that one down for some time.

We popped in at the Compound Mother’s Day morning, just to make sure the chicks made it OK their first night.  Then I was blessed to spend the remainder of the day with D1.  While other Moms were standing in line at a fancy restaurant, D1 and I had a comfy day, sweats and t-shirt, picked up subs and a slice of cheesecake to share, and then sat down and watched the 5-1/2 hour movie Pride and Prejudice.   That’s what I call living! 

They've Had Enough!

The Hooligan's "class of 2012" have had enough!  They are stir crazy in their current playpen on our back patio.  It's a constant cacophony of noise, and it seems they've grown up so much, they are out of  the proper amount of space needed.   They are officially done with the heat lamp, as they're four weeks old today.   They're headed to the Compound tomorrow morning for new "digs", and the first sight of Moms and Dad.  Along with enough space for WWE!  I may actually get a full nights sleep, since they get me up throughout the night with all their goofing off.  Reminds me of bringing a newborn home... 2am, 4am,

Aren't these some of the cutest?!... noisy but dang they're cute!

Freezing Green Beans

Welcome to the new Followers, thanks for joining The Compound!

I planted what amounts to about a 15 foot row of pole beans. It's my first experience with them and I have to say, I like them better than bush beans.  First of all, they produce more and longer beans, and it's easier standing up to pick them than it is to bend over picking bush beans.  There flavor is great.  The Moose and I have been eating them as we go, but I decided to freeze some from our last two pickings. Here's how;

-Get water in a pot to a rolling boil
-Wash and prepare beans, cut off the ends and to the size you'd like
-Put them in the pot of boiling water for 3 minutes (I used my pasta pot and strainer together, so it was easy to drop the beans in, and them lift up the inside strainer)

-Put them in another pot or bowl with ice water, for another 3 minutes
-Bag them up and freeze

I ended up with three bags this time, but it's a start!  Not hard at all, and better than letting the beans waste away in the frig or on the vine.

Countdown to Bee Day!

It’s countdown to Bee Day!    Ship date is May 15^th, and I’m ready!  I have my supplies;

·         Crazy white outfit, with gloves and headdress (may also wear on Halloween)

·         Top bar hive

·         Organic beeswax to coat the bars

·         Honey to feed them for the first few days

Funny story, sorry to interrupt the flow, I stopped by a local honey supplier to pick up a small bottle of local honey.   I need it to feed my bees, for a short time while they get established.  The purveyor, an old surly man came out to help.  I asked for a small bottle of honey to feed my new bees next week.  He kind of snickered at me, gave me one of those “yeah right, you’re gonna handle bees” kind of looks, then proceeded to stand there as I looked through his shelves.  I was interested to see all the different things he produces from his honey, and I noticed some antique smokers and asked if he sold equipment for backyard beekeepers. He seemed perturbed and then he proceeded to tell me that I could get away cheaper by giving my bees sucrose instead of honey.  I kindly told him, no, my bees would have good old fashioned honey. 

I’ve read a lot on honey bees, and have watched a fantastic DVD from http://www.backyardhive.com/.  They take a holistic approach to raising bees.  FYI, their site is chock-full of information and well worth a visit.  Since more and more details come out about Colony Collapse Disorder and the possible connections to the use of pesticides and unnatural practices, I don’t want to use sugar water.  Bees don’t eat sugar water in nature, so why change the natural way of things if you don’t have to.   I’m sure other bees have done just fine with sugar water, but we’re making an effort to go as natural as possible with all our food sources.  It’s not always possible, but we try and make the attempt.

He sold me a 12 oz. bottle of wild flower honey for $5.00. I can understand he thinks I'm just another link in the chain of reasons why business gets harder each day, but I think he's missing out on an opportunity to increase his business, by offering items or classes in beekeeping for backyard hobbyists.  Maybe I'll have to start something on my own.  Something to ponder...

·         Top Bar Tool, for scrapping off comb and propolis from the sides of the hive so we can harvest and inspect the honeycomb.

·         Herding Tool, to move the bees off the comb and back into the hive.

·         3lb hive with queen ordered and shipping next week

What’s missing from my list you ask besides Benedryl?  A smoker.  I am going to try and not use one.  Again, it’s the holistic approach, and when using a Top Bar Hive is rarely, if ever needed.  The hive is structured differently than a Langstroth hive, and use of smoke doesn’t actually calm bees down.  It sends them into “recover” mode and they begin to gorge on honey.  The smoke sends a trigger that they might have to evacuate the hive, so eat as much as you can before leaving, so you have something to live off of, until you find your new home.   

I'm excited and nervous at the same time,  but I think we're well on our way, wish me luck!

Pictures of the items are from the BackYardHive.com site where I purchased them from. I am not getting paid for the reference.

So Long Monkey

We said goodbye this weekend to one of our roosters, Monkey.  He was from our first batch of chicks a year ago and got his name because he was always noisy;  like a howler monkey.  It was sad to see him go, but he has 5 new girlfriends all to himself, and my 9 hens will have a chance to heal up, since two roosters was just too many.

The new girls weren't taking any of his "crap" either.  They put him in line right away, and of course he set off to make himself seem important by finding them bugs.  I was glad to see him fit right in.  It's still sad.  So long Monkey.

Back to Eden - Garden Update

We began the Back to Eden gardening adventure on October 29, 2011.  Here's what we've experienced so far.

The number and amount of weeds is drastically reduced.  However we have dollar weed, and another grass/weed that I can not get control of.  No matter how much mulch I place on top.  It is recommended 6".  We are at least that if not more, but still they will not abate.  And no matter how often I pull them out, they just return, and more.  I'm convinced for each one I pull, three more show up.

There are no more mud problems. Although we haven't had much rain to speak of the past several months, and we're under "red flag" warnings, but when it does, it is easy to maneuver around.  The mud was so bad it would capture your boots and pull them right off!

There are definitely more spiders.  I wonder if this is because of the mulch itself, or that I can now pick them out because of the mulch.  They haven't bothered me yet, and I know they eat some garden pests, so they will stay right where they are at for the time being.  Like I have anything to do with it.

At this stage, our garden is a bit anemic.  My plants are not abundantly green, or bushy.  I have had success growing beans, tomatoes, cucumbers and zucchini at this point, however they are not the size plants I would like to see.  Our soil is extremely acidic, and before we started the BtoE program, we never got a handle on that problem.  There doesn't seem to be enough lime on the planet to help correct this issue.  We cheated a bit as well, and have tried to use up the Miracle Grow we had in inventory to help the plants along.   It helps for about a week, and then the plants yellow up and thin out.  The purpose of the program was to help eliminate the need for chemicals to make your garden prosper. The jury is still out, we'll keep going as it may take a year or two to get the kind of results we really want.

We are having good success with romaine and spring mix lettuce.  Really no problems here.  See the photo, notice the friendly dollar weed?

We're also getting a good return on the pole beans.  We have to pick the tomatoes early, otherwise the raccoons (we have confirmed they are our problem) pick them off the vine when ripe, take a bite and leave them on the ground, as they pursue their next victim.  But I do go home with a small basket of fresh veggies for the Moose and I.

The butternut squash we planted are also taking off.  At this point, it looks like the watermelon, cantaloupe and pumpkin will do fine too.

Other than that, we'll keep you posted on the BtoE program results.  In the meantime, we had a whirling dervish in the corn.  A twisted up, broken off mess!  That ends corn for the season. It wasn't doing that great anyway, but it's sad to see it happen after all the energy needed to work a garden.

The pond level is seriously down, we really need rain.  The water used to cover the bucket with an inch or two over the top.  Palm fronds are in the pond to help create a shady area for the tilapia, just in case you were wondering.

One final note;  here are some photos of the Hooligans Class of 2012.  They are now three weeks old, and a very friendly group.  Still to be named, except for one who is Elmer.  He had a case of pasty butt.  Can you figure out why he's called Elmer?  The Moose came up with that one, and it stuck. (no pun intended)

Off to our daughters graduation in Gainesville!  Have a great weekend and thanks for following along!

You're Welcome

OK, how many of you read this mornings post, and spent the remainder of the day singing the Diana Ross and the Supremes tune in your head.  You're welcome!

"Reflections of the Way Life Used to Be"

If you can name the song that the verse above is from you win!  An “at a boy” or “at a girl”!

I’ve been spending time lately reflecting on my days of parenting and the fact that I’m turning 45 this summer.  Yes, I said it, 45!

You see, my youngest daughter, D2, is graduating from the University of Florida, School of Business this Saturday.    She follows in the footsteps of her sister D1, who graduated 2 years ago.  I am uber proud of them both.  They excelled in their studies.

D1 and D2 both had/have a job before leaving college.  In today’s economy, and the recent news report of a 50% unemployment rate for new graduates, it’s a testament to their hard work and diligence.  My girls are no slouches.  The Moose and I taught them well.  They earned their academic scholarships while in high school.  Worked part time jobs while in college.  They both received internships that have catapulted them to their current employers.  We couldn’t be more proud. We’re blessed we could help them along the way.

While that part of our responsibility has come to an end.  I can’t help but reflect on the past.   I miss the drooling, toothless grins.  I miss waiting to see what outfit they’d decide to wear, horizontal stripes not included.  D2, spent the better part of her early years in a casual dress with two front pockets.  If they’re reading this, they know the exact one I am referring to.  I miss watching them swim at the pool.  I miss taking them to and from school, and hearing about their day.  It was either the best or worst day “of their whole lives”.  I miss the drama.  I miss the braces.  I miss sitting with them in the car with the radio turned up way too loud and all three of us singing at the top of our lungs!  I miss the dark ages (D2 wore a lot of black zippered clothing).  I miss picking out prom dresses and doing hair.  I miss giving driving lessons.  I miss working on school projects;   remember the volcano D1?  I miss the noise.    

Now that this chapter of life is behind me, I do look forward as well.  I look forward to D2’s graduation ceremony. I look forward to seeing how they grow and mature.  I look forward to planning weddings, and maybe someday seeing more drooling toothless grins.  Just not quite yet!   I still have to get over the fact that I turn 45 next month!

A Window to the World!

As I sit looking out my "window" I am amazed at the views.  What you ask?  Bright sunshine, green grass, flowers blooming.  Nope, nope and well, yes to those things, but truly the fantastical things I get to look at are the crazies that live in this world. 

While driving from one appointment to another yesterday, the Moose and I came upon a man and a woman on a motorcycle.  Not an uncommon occurrence to be sure.  However, what struck me as strange was the following;

Said man was completely shirtless, not uncommon but it appeared he was trying to even out his sunburn.  He must have been wearing what my children refer to as a "wife beater" shirt.  White ribbed tank top.  Only his arms and neckline were bright pink.  Sitting behind him was a women, nothing strange there.  However as he pulled out in front of us, her dog peaked his head out the side.  I've not seen that before.   Is it even legal?   Think what you will, but it doesn't end there.  While hanging on to her dog with her left hand, she lights up a cigarette with the right hand.  That's dexterity right there.  The whole scene was totally out of place. 

Then we're having breakfast at the table watching the local news.  (Has anyone noticed the uptick in violence on a local level in your area?)  A stranger than fiction piece came on.  You couldn't come up with a story like this on your own;  Grandpa and Grandma decided.  Excuse me;  drunk Grandpa and drunk Grandma.  Excuse me again;  4 time DUI, revoked licensed drunk Grandpa was driving drunk Grandma down a road going 10 miles per hour, while towing their 7 year old granddaughter in her toy car behind them. 

http://www.wftv.com/videos/news/national/grandparents-drunkenly-tow-7-year-old-in-toy-car/vG6Xm/

Need I say more?!  What have you seen lately than makes you scratch your head?