I could not afford salt, so ash it was. Similar to the way that lime could bring down the melting point of glass, I figured that the ash would act the same way. By mixing some ash with clay, it would melt more readily and seal the surface of the clay.
I also examined the failed pots. Two of them had a very small pebbles, only a little larger than grains of coarse sand at the crack, along the path of the crack. To sort out the coarser grains, I would have to make a watertight container first. Instead, it made more sense to keep the containers small and fire up a quantity of ceramic and hoped that enough would survive.
Meanwhile, I gathered the material for my ink: walnut fruit. Not the hard shell and the edible meat within, but the husks that contained nut. I sorted through the fallen fruit to find the least bug eaten and the right level of aging. The dark brown fruit was rich in tannic acid and would etch nicely into the birch bark.
I just needed to burn enough wood to create the ash, glaze the pottery, then boil down the fruit to make ink.
In the meantime, I would need something to do. There was a creek right there, which lent itself to fishing. To fish, I would need a hook, line, and a stick. Man's wants were truly endless.
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