You’d think a Cross-Diamond totem would be easy for me to spot.
It took until the sun was going down before I found it. I was tired enough at that point that I made a small pile of grass and just set my head on it. I was sound asleep within minutes.
The next morning I started digging.
Look, I know there’s a stunning lack of bread mating for your liking, but I feel like you should at least know about the less exiting parts of my day. That includes wandering aimlessly for metal and digging it up.
Let’s just skip to the part where I bring back and armful of copper chunks.
I’ve already told you about making a cooking pit. This time I’m cooking a clay mold for an axe and a pot filled with the equivalent amount of metal.
I surrounded them both with dry grass and sticks, and set it alight.
This time I couldn’t just leave it. I had to watch it closely, less it get too cold and the metal solidifies. Then I’d have to do this all over again.
I spent the time making more tool molds for my next burning. And while I was at it I got started digging a new pit.
I kept looking inside the pot until finally the copper had melted. Using sticks I fished out the pot and the mold. I’d lie and say I wasn’t rusty at this, but a couple first degree burns on my arms say otherwise.
Now I’m proud to say I’ve entered the chalcolithic.
Considering it took my ancestors half a million years to get to this point, I think I’m on a pretty good pace.
I tested the axe today. Brought down my first tree, one of the shorter black ones. As I thought, the wood inside was almost a pure white. Not very strong, but I’m sure I can find a use for it. Next, I’ll get started on the brown and purple trees.
Let’s just hope I can make charcoal out of at least one of the tree species around here. I really don’t want to have to look for coal.
In the meantime, I’ve begun my new log piles near my tent. I’ll test each of them to see how they combust.