Farming in the shade

We use an antique fanning mill or seed cleaner to take out most of the non-bean stuff that is harvested along with the beans: stems, bits of bean pods, stones, split beans, and weed seeds. We remove the beans from the combine in buckets and then pour them one by one into the fanning mill hopper.  The beans move along two screens with different sized holes. These screens shake back and forth to both move the beans along and allow some of the debris to fall through the holes. Different beans require screens with different sized holes. The junk comes out the side of the fanning mill. And the beans come up a small conveyor and into a large wooden box. While there is still some cleaning to do, this process takes out much of the unwanted stuff. These Hidatsa Red Beans are now ready for the next step.

Not really... There has been very little spring cleaning going on. But one thing I did take care of was our wool-filled mattress topper. Here's how I did it. I filled the bathtub with warm water and added a littl e liquid laundry soap. I think dishsoap or shampoo would also work, but I grabbed the laundry soap. When I say "a little," I mean it. I swished the water and soap around, and mentally noted that it was about dishwater temperature.  Then I put the topper in the water. I found out that washin g wool is sort of like cooking noodles--you need more water than you think. After submerging it and flipping it over a time or two, I let it set for an hour or so. It's very important not to agitate or scrub wool, as this will cause it to felt.  After the soak time, I drained the water out. This was as good as a session in the gym, as a water-logged mattress topper is heavy. I had to hold it out of the way, or it acted as a dam in the tub. Then I had to hold it up a bit, t...