Rocking Horses

So this rocking horse is what took up almost all of my free time in December. Nate's grandpa made rocking horses for Nate and his brothers 32 years ago out of scrap lumber. Mom and Dad Burt found Nate's and Ben's horses in their shed this fall. They were in really rough condition (Nate's horse literally lost its head), but I decided that I really wanted to try to refinish Ben's horse for him for Christmas. Now, I've never refinished anything, so I was really flying by the seat of my pants, learning as I went and making plenty of mistakes.

I bought power tools (the Dremel is my new favorite gadget) and learned about different kinds of stains and glues. About a week before Christmas, I started getting really worried that Ben would hate it, that he would see all of my mistakes (did I mention there were many?) and wish he had refinished it himself.

The lowest point was when I thought I was almost done . . . the horse was sanded and screwed back together, but when I went to nail on a leg for stability, the horse broke in half. I thought that I had fixed a crack with wood filler . . . instead I had to take it apart and glue it together with Sumo glue (that stuff is awesome). I'm ultimately glad it happened because it ended up much stronger than it would be otherwise.

Anyway, I stained it, lacquered it . . . my children fell in love with it right before I took it to the Christmas Eve party (kids, I'm still working on Daddy's). Mom and Dad decided that the horse should be the last gift of the night, so I had to wait through the entire night with my stomach in knots. When we finally brought it out and Ben opened it, he started crying almost immediately. He loved it . . . it was a better reaction than I could have hoped for!