What cainiao said
1. As mentioned, the crematorium is more for getting rid of stuff like tattered clothes and any vermin remains the apothecary doesn't need. For old fashion wood ->coke making, try the wood oven. There's many ways to get fuel in this mod btw so you need not rely on trees indefinitely, not to mention it's easy to farm your own trees via farm plots.
3. The default setups have very common minerals in them so finding coal etc should not be an issue. Keep in mind also that as you mine you will find Blood of Armok boulders, which can be turned into an infinitely magma spewing magmaling with the alchemist workshop and a changeling. You can discover the magma buildings via research btw, so no need fig to the magma sea or stress too much about embarking with a volcano.
Also, the cheapest way to get infinite (albeit slow) fuel is with a peat layer and a screw press. You can collect 5x peat in masterwork (as you would clay) and then press it in a screw press for 1x compressed peat, which in turn can be converted into fuel via a smelter for 2-4 coke.
Meph's mod is great about giving the player a wide range of options when it comes to most resources, other than eggs
Moleweasels replace cats for vermin hunting (they own cats) and the shaggy badger dog is a shareable vanilla dog. Mastiffs are what dogs wanted to be when they were puppies. No grazer needs more than 3x3 afaik and anything overtly war/hunting doesn't graze at all. The turkey is dead, a moment of silence please.
Feel free to turn off any option that sounds too complex/difficulty inducing. It helps to run a starter world to get a feel for all the new content the mod brings.
Edit: Meph beat me
