I think they might be a bust.

The beans won't soften.  They've been slow-cooking in the oven for hours - and they're still hard.  Taste-wise, delish, but they may end up in the trash if we can't chew 'em.  Ugh.  Apparently there a million reasons why beans don't soften - vinegar, ketchup, molasses, stale beans, not boiling enough, etc.  I followed the directions to a T and they're still not happening.  I hate that I might be wasting all this food - so if I can't get any progress in the next two hours while I'm up - I'll save what I can fit in the crockpot and hope for at least bean mush by tomorrow for just us - because I couldn't dare serve that to people.