At the sudden loud whirl and horrible screeching and scratching and whining noise, Danny froze, his free arm partway out and ready to move as his eyes searched the barn. With a disarming and worrisome jutter, the screeching paused and then went on. Passing by with the other scraper to clear off the alleyway into the gutter, Elizabeth, thankfully didn't find his reaction funny like her dad did.
"It's the gutter," she explained slightly too loud to be heard. Then pointed. "See?"
Taking a couple steps over, still grasping hold of his scraper, Danny peered into the crevice that was the gutter lining each side right behind the stalls. Sure enough, the stuff inside was moving. Slowly, sure, but enough that he could tell and feel a little unsteady at the sight of part of the ground moving beneath him.
He glanced down the length, noticing it was slowly being moved out of the barn through the lower gap in the wall. Curious, scraper still in hand and shoulders up by his ears at the sheer nerve grinding noise of it, he followed, stepping out the large sliding doors at the end of the barn for chasing cows in and out. A thin metal covering hide it from view.
So that's why there was the covering here and at the start of the alleyway. The gutter wrapped all the way around. It was connected.
And there, there was that odd machine behind a large piece of plywood to stop the cows from going there instead of into the barn. Danny squeezed his upper body through the gap to see better.
He hadn't thought much of this thing before. Figured the old rundown thing was either not used or barely used. Either way, he steered clear of lots of things around here as he didn't know what most of it was for. Seemed like a good rule of thumb with all the huge farm equipment.
Excellent rule of thumb in general.
"Here. I'll help finish scraping the alley so you can watch it."
Absently, Danny handed off the scraper to Edi behind him, eyes entranced.
Stuff was moving up an incline, going up and up, then dropping off disappearing. Into a long metal thing behind and underneath the top point.
Danny strained his neck. The long thing with wheels was attached onto a tractor parked beside the barn. To cart it all away? Where to? Huh. He'd never thought of where all the stuff from the cows went or had to go before. There was a lot. It didn't just disappear into a sewer system.
He brought his focus back, watching flat...bars of metal came about to the other side of the machine, sliding and scraping the bottom as they went along. That's where the noise came from. The metal scraping along to push as much of the stuff out of the gutter as it could. To go...somewhere
"Neat, huh? Didn't realize you've not seen it on before. I usually run it in the mornings when gutters start looking full."
Danny turned his head at Dale's voice, dragging his eyes off the steady up and down movement of the machine, one side full and the other empty.
"Yeah." He agreed. "But the noise is awful."
"Can't argue with that."
Unable to hold back curiosity, Danny spoke again.
"Where does it all go?"
"Well." Dale paused, eyes being critical and judging at Danny. Then gave his answer. "Goes up to the manure spreader there, then I haul it out to spread across the fields."
The light bulb went off in Danny's head. For the soil. It was good for the soil. Stuff was still gross, but that was neat. Compost. More nasty than leftover food Sam had done for the compost bin she insisted used for the garden behind her house, but still, compost.
"I'll be doing that after my usual morning chores. If you want to sit in the cab and see."
Danny hesitated at the offer. He did kind of want to see, but.
Another light bulb went off and he grinned. "You gave me a town kid answer, didn't you? I've heard all of you catching yourselves around me. Come on. I'm a teenager. Of course I noticed and picked up on it. You call that thing a shit spreader, don't you?"
Barely a blink, and Dale's face stretched with a huge grin, breaking into laughter. Danny grinned even wider back.