I've been hauling it around for over twenty-five years.

An ammo box full of 15-20 lbs of miscellaneous nuts and bolts. Scooped quite literally at random out of a huge bucket of military surplus nuts and bolts. Spare metal parts carried in the truck "just in case...".

During the equipment trade-offs between the last two old and new trucks, I'd pondered whether the can was worth the gasoline it takes to haul it around. Been years since I'd ever taken anything out of it.

Modern vehicles are more often held together with plastic clips than steel bolts. But still, being a creature of habit, each time I'd just dropped the dusty, rusty box into the toolbox of the new truck.

And forgotten it was there.

Until this morning, when I kept hearing an odd rumble from under the front right.

There are two bolts that hold the control arm onto the truck. The control arm being that cast aluminum wedge that keeps the wheel attached to the rest of the truck.

Always a good thing, as I discovered what happens when a control arm breaks, way back in April.

But the end of those bolts is not supposed to look like this:

Nutless.

As in, sans a nut.

It took almost an hour, including throwing the masked heeler out of her bed in the back seat so's I could get the jack out, and the assistance of two elk hunters from Montana, but I managed to find three nuts inside that old ammo box that happened to fit the bolt.

And allowed me to complete my pronghorn route this morning.

And notice the tiny, tiny weed blooming beneath our feet.

Otherwise, it was a real pleasant morning.