A winter preparation exhibit includes a variety of items outside the Harkin Store Sunday including ice tongs, lye soap said to be 200 years old and died apple slices strung together.

WEST NEWTON TOWNSHIP — Settlers spent many months preparing for winter in the 1800s.

Tasks included making soap and candles, canning, drying, putting up gardens, cutting enough firewood to last for months of cold weather, and stocking food for themselves and their animals.

Historic equipment and farm life photographs displayed at the Harkin Store Sunday included threshing at the Mike Griebel farm in Cottonwood Township and at the Charles Hutchings farm in 1885.

The subjects of other photos included stack threshing at the August Loeffelmacher farm on Oct. 20, 1900. Years ago, people stacked their grain when the threshing machine wasn’t available soon. A good grain stack would keep for several months, long after shocks would spoil.

A photo of cutting grain with horses in the 1940s was also displayed. A photo taken on the Clifford Jeske farm in Linden Township featured a number of the Jeske grandchildren sitting on machinery.

Harkin Store Assistant Manager Robin Grewe spent part of the afternoon sewing rabbit fur into a winter muff (handwarmer). Outdoor fashion accessories made of fur or fabric with both ends open to keep the hands warm, were popular with men and women in the 17th and 18th centuries.

On Sunday, Oct. 7, from 1 to 4 p.m., the Harkin Store will feature Alexander Harkin coming to West Newton to raise sheep and produce wool. The store will have displays of wool, a spinning wheel, carders (that process of sheep’s wool becoming wool to use in manufacturing), woolen items, and old and new quilts.

In addition, Donna Dose will show her sock machine and woolen items made from the fur of her Angora rabbits.

For more information, visit http://www.mnhs.org/event/6053 and 6054

Fritz Busch can be emailed at fbusch@nujournal.com.