Buck Vs. the Bulldog Ants

CHAPTER NINETEEN

  The spraying of the new miticide was well underway. The all-terrain tractor with boom was spraying the wheat field and had already sprayed over the burned cornfield. The operator shut off the machine as John approached.

  "Find any animals in the pasture?" John asked.

  "Not a one, Mr. Christianson, but there sure was a lot of dead ants. Some lives ones too but this new stuff kills them in seconds."

  "You sprayed the green drums in the pasture, didn't you?"

  "Yes sir, and now I'm using the yellow drum miticide."

  "Good." John gave more instructions about the spraying sequence and then the operator started up the tractor and resumed his task. There were four men using backpack sprayers moving through the woodlands. They were told not to spray the water in the ponds. He hoped that would not happen just in case there was a chance of water contamination from the chemicals.

  John needed to think. He went back to his den and sat, pondering. He then called the ACC switchboard and asked Gloria if she had the cell number of Mike Weidle. "Yes, Mr. Christianson, here it is." John dialed and when answered, said, "Hi Mike, this is John Christianson."

  "Mr. Christianson, wow, we sure do miss you around here!"

  "Well thanks, Mike, but I have a question for you. The new miticide in the yellow barrels, how many have you shipped would you say?"

  "A whole lot, but hold on, I'll tell you exactly." John held a few moments and then could hear the rustle of paper. "12,422 drums sir. There's a lot of semi's lined up waiting for more."

  "Yeah, Mike, that is a whole lot. Say, where are the shipments going?"

  "Good gosh, I hadn't noticed, let's see.......I count nine different states, sir."

  "Thank you Mike. You always did a great job for me. My best to you and Sheila and the kids."

  John wrote the number on a legal pad, then calculated that quantity in gallonage, which amounted to 683,210 gallons. He reached behind him and retrieved a three ringed binder. He remembered correctly, the highest gallonage output for one week in the company's history was under 500,000 gallons. He also wrote "nine states". Then he wrote "one day", and after that, the stock price he had seen earlier, but upon opening the webpage, he wrote down....."22 percent gain." He wrote down the date and the hour, then picked up the phone.

  "Chip, we need to talk, can you come over to my place?"