Wouldn't Ya Know. . .

 I told you about getting my Suburban back road-worthy again so that I could haul horse and chicken feed and things like that without having to arrange for DH to take me in his company-issued truck since the blue truck got totaled and I no longer had a truck to drive.  We figured that was a good solution, as I could do most of the farm related truck-type tasks in the Suburban just as I had for years before we bought the blue truck.  And any large/heavy hauling we needed to do we could use DH's work truck for--the Suburban, being rather elderly and having lived most of it's 21 years outside, was retired from trailer towing a few years ago after we were advised by the local auto mechanic that it wasn't a good idea to pull weight attached to the Suburban's rusty frame anymore. I believe the descriptive phrase he used was "Swiss cheese".

We thought we had it all figured out: Suburban to do the light trucky tasks, and the EV truck DH had been assigned to drive as his work issued vehicle for the heavier stuff.  We could get along without the blue truck just fine, and didn't need to rush into purchasing a replacement (that will be a subject of a future post, give me a few months and perhaps I'll get it written).

And then, wouldn't ya know, the day after we picked the Suburban up from the shop where it had gotten it's brake issues repaired, DH got an email from the company vehicle department at work.  It was time to turn the EV truck in and get his next assigned vehicle.

Which isn't an unusual thing.  In the past four years, since DH got the promotion that qualified him to get a company assigned vehicle for personal use, he has had each one for six to nine or ten months and then they call that vehicle back (where it gets sold as company used) and issue him a brand new one.  The EV truck came to him late last fall, so really, we were kind of expecting it to get called back soon.

What we hadn't expected, was the new vehicle to be what it is.  DH has been assigned one car, two medium-largish SUVs, and two trucks of varying size so far.  We figured he would get something in that category again: something we could haul stuff and tow a trailer with.

Uh, yeah.  This time, not so much.  He got another SUV, but this one is the smallest one yet (not counting the car, as you can't really tow anything with a car).  Ironically it is the same model of SUV that both Honorary Son and DD2 have as their daily drivers.  Works great for them who don't live on farms or haul anything other than passengers, groceries, and occasionally a small piece of furniture.  Will not work well at all for hauling anything big/heavy and shape-shifting like 50 pound grain bags--I know this because I have tried and the cargo space is so small you have to load the bags facing one particular direction and stack them because you can't fit two side by side. Grain bags don't necessarily stack well; they have a tendency to slide on each other and also come flopping out at you as soon as the rear (cargo) door is lifted. This size SUV also doesn't have the guts (or the labeling) to haul our 16 foot trailer with anything on it--like, say a pallet of baled horse bedding, or even two dozen bales of horse bedding. . .  We know this, because we've known this make of vehicle for the past seven years.

Well, poop.  Guess we aren't getting along without a real truck afterall.  Although, on occassion, it is possible for DH to borrow a truck from the fleet at work, provided they aren't all busy/assigned elsewhere on the dates he wishes to borrow one.  Which is how he was able to haul home all that free oak last week.  He requested to borrow a pickup for a week.  And we hauled all kinds of stuff with it.  Which made for a busy week indeed.