Learning to Share

Through Him then, let’s continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips praising His name.  And do not neglect doing good and sharing, for with such sacrifices God is pleased.  - Hebrews 13:15-16

I'm not a psychologist, but I firmly believe that the act of sharing is not a natural thing.  It is not the default.  As humans, we tend to gravitate toward selfishness.  It's sad, but true.  It is part of the human condition since the fall of Man and sin entered the world.  Now, we must be taught to share.  We are to love our neighbor as ourselves, right?

Believe it or not, animals need to be taught to share as well.  Just like humans, it is often against their will.  I'll show you our nightly ritual, in which we forcefully teach Elsie to share.  Elsie is our little Jersey heifer just born to Clarabelle.  Clarabelle produces more milk than Elsie can drink.  Clarabelle's production of milk is based on the principle of supply and demand.  

We keep milk cows so that we can drink the milk too.  In order for Elsie to get her milk and us to get some too, we've instituted a formal schedule.  Here's how it goes.  Ever since Elsie had been a week old and enjoyed the colostrum, Elsie has had full access to Clarabelle and her milk all day long.  In the evening, we bring both Clarabelle and Elsie into the barn.

Clarabelle is given hay and we milk her out completely.  Hopefully, Elsie has gotten all the milk she wanted because if not, she's going to bed without supper.

You can notice below that Clarabelle's bag is now empty after milking.  The next step is moving the bench, unhobbling Clarabell's leg, and leading her out of the barn.

We lead Clarabelle out rather quickly as Elsie wants to be with her momma.  We distract Elsie, lead her out and close the barn door.

And here is what happens next.  Poor Elsie sadly, longingly looks out of the gate.  She'll spend the night in the barn.  Her momma will spend the night outside the barn, making milk for us.

The first thing in the morning, we tie Elsie up, lead Clarabelle in and milk her out into a clean, stainless steel bucket.  Once done, we put them together for the day.  As Clarabelle makes milk, Elsie drinks it.  We share with one another and we BOTH benefit.  There are few win-win situations in life, but here's one of them.