A Tough Repair

Several years ago, not long after we moved into this house, Brombeere was out doing the local yard sales and came across a rocking cow.  That's right, not the usual rocking horse, but a rocking cow.

That was a pretty unique find so, of course, she bought it and brought it home.  It has been loved by our grandkids ever since.  Even when it wasn't getting ridden, it was always near by, always ready for a ride.

It's a fine, sturdy little rocking cow; colorful, well built, and solid.  Very creative.

Perfect in every way except for one thing: it was missing an ear.  Over the years we have searched and searched for a replacement ear.  That's not something you can just run down to the hardware store and pick up, but each time we found a friend with woodworking skills, we'd asked about getting a replacement ear made.  Unfortunately, in all the years we've been looking we were unable to find anyone willing to tackle it.  It's a unique shape and basically needed to be hand-made.

Then one day Maulbeere's husband was over visiting with her, saw it, and volunteered to give it a shot. That was amazing!  He took the remaining ear off and took it home with them.  Then, several days later, they were back with a new ear!  We knew he dabbled in woodworking, but had no idea he was up to this kind of work.

So he brought it back and put on an initial coat of stain.  There was some interesting help with that (a very interested young man), but he kept things under control quite nicely.

Once he had it stained and it had dried, he took it downstairs, along with the original ear, which he had used as a model, and put them both on the cow.

Now the little rocking cow was whole again!  We talked with him about doing some additional staining on the ear, it's not quite a good match.  But the hard part is done, the ear is made and on!

Brombeere is a happy grandma again!  The real test will be when a grandkid climbs on and takes the cow for a ride; the ears double for the handles to hang on with.  But we're halfway there, the ear is made and attached!  All is well in the world again!