Drum brakes / wheel cylinder swap help

So I decided to do the rear (drum) brakes today.
Dana 35's on my '89.
... and decided to do all the hardware and the wheel cylinders at the same time

Pain in the arse vs. Disks!

AND THE LET DRUM WAS FULL OF GUE (guessing brake fluid and brake dust). WTF!

So I got it all reassembled, but don't have a brake gauge. I used the drum as a measure pulled it off adjusted and repeat until it had a hint of drag.
Finished the assembly and tried to bleed the brakes with a hand pump bleeder.
NO F'ING JOY!
Drug my kid out to assist. Open valve ~ he pushed the brake. Tightened ~ he released. Repeat a few times. And topped every so often.
Still no solid flow.
Re bless the front... solid.

Gonna tinker more tomorrow or Wed when I get a moment.
Did the forward and solid stop... backward and solid stop ~ 10 times each way to let the brakes self adjust.

Since I changed out the wheel cylinders... do I need to bleed it different?
How do I know the brakes are properly adjusted after all that?

Nothing special with bleeding new cylinders accept they sometimes take a while to get the air out of them. The self adjusters will adjust as you back up. No way of knowing when they are done

Does each wheel adjust independently?

... I noticed that after a bit of stop 'n go, there was more room in the resevoir. So I'm gonna check it again every few days.

Thanks

Yes independently