I was rescued! I thought this was fun, and I liked how everything gradually fell into place - great job with that! Have never been so happy to see canned food too. :) The [thing] in the forest appeared only twice (on Day 6, maybe, and Day 8?) after I saw it for first time - is that intentional? I did get a little worried I was going to starve, though it turned out ok.
Not sure if this is a bug, but cooking food in the fireplace seemed to work only if the fire was lit immediately before cooking. If I lit the fire, went out and did stuff and came back, combining the pot and food would result in "You have to be at the fireplace" message even though I was standing in front of it.
Congrats on getting this done!