Here is a way to make use of an old stump or log. Using coals from your fire you can create a water trough, or cooking pot.
Coal-burning is by far easier for making depressions in wood than trying to carve them with a knife or sharp stone tool. Wooden bowls, cups, pots and spoons can be made through this process using hot coals. This method works best with dry wood obtained from a log, stump, or other chunks of wood.
There are two ways in which to keep the container from absorbing food material that will start to spoil. One is roasting the inside with pine pitch mixed with wood ashes. If you're going to be boiling water in it with hot rocks, the pitch will soften and give your tea or stew a pine flavor. A better method is to seal it with double-rendered fats (tallow). After each cleaning, add a little fat to seal it to keep it from cracking.
WARNING: Be sure the log you intend to use is not a poisonous species like yew, cascara, or some types of locus. "Pitchy" species like pine can also make your food or water taste funny.
1). Create a fire and add coals to the top of your stump.
2). Gather your coals into a circle on the surface of the stump. Remember to work the coals into a smaller area than you think. The heat will carry and char a larger area than you may anticipate
3). Once the coals have burned down. Remove any remnants and use a sharp-edge rock or knife--the Trackr Knife edge tip works great to scrape away the char.
Add more coals..maybe a little more this time...then repeat the process of burning then scrapping until you have reache the desired width and depth.
This was about 5gals of water.
4). It doesn't hurt to create some tongs to move your coals onto your stump.
5). Finished utility stump! Ready for cooking or storing possibles.