Michigan Forest Life - December 6, 2025

Greetings friends,

I feel like I have been immersed in the Winterfield Pines Nature Sanctuary forest for a week.  I

have not.  I have been 850 miles away, cooped up in a small recording booth in Vermont, narrating the Audiobook, FOREST LEGEND: THE TALE OF OL' SPLIT TOE (Photo1). But the story is written with the landscape and terrain of Winterfield Pines used as an anchor to develop the fictional setting of FOREST LEGEND, and to imagine the way it has changed across time.  In fact, I wrote much of the story while sitting at the Treehouse table, looking out the window at the surrounding forest when I paused from my writing (Photo 2). So, spending a week reading the story out loud dropped me back into the same forest, the same time traveling adventure. And it was a pleasure.

I am in Shelburne, Vermont, on the east shore of Lake Champlain. When I look west across the lake, I see the cascading peaks of the Adirondack Mountains in New York State. When I look east, I see the Green Mountain range. A drive through the countryside is much like the landscape of rural Michigan. The agricultural land with its fences, tree lines, and at times, round bales of hay lined up in neat rows at a convenient spot. Farms with classic barns, sometimes leaning a bit from decades resisting the prevailing west wind. Roofs needing fresh shingles. Weathered siding. Old tractors and implements resting in their graveyards after lives of toil; their service to the farmer remembered like a pet dog and recorded now in rust, a missing wheel and scavenged parts. And occasionally a shiny vintage tractor in polished restoration and parked proudly for display, as if it is still part of the fleet that keeps things on the farm going, or a freshly painted, green, two-bottom plow, left like a sculpture in a flower garden in front of the farmhouse - if you are lucky, it will be the horse-drawn variety. Sometimes a classic windmill standing between the barn and the house completes the charm. And sometimes, a small section of a field has been given up for a large, modern windmill with enormous sweeping blades that move with grand power rather than at a fast spin, turning a mighty generator high above the ground. Rural Vermont is much like Michigan.

Permit me to bring you another FOREST LEGEND teaser, preview snippet 11 of 27 (Photo 3). I

intend to send out a new snippet each week from now until the March 31, 2026, publication day. These snippets should connect you with the forest, whether I am in the wilds or sitting and a far off place, trying to accomplish something with this book launch (Photo 4).

You may be interested in the reviews posted on Goodreads by several advance readers. Follow the link:

Forest Legend: The Tale of Ol' Split Toe by Dan Ellens | Goodreads

I wish you safe December travels, and a book that will immerse your heart in the wilds.

Until Next Time,

Dan Ellens

Excerpt from Chapter 13

AD 1880 - Split Toe stopped to observe these loggers again for a while. He did not know if he would ever understand the loggers. They all seemed the same, only focused on removing trees. Watching them work, Split Toe was still not able to figure out what motivated their behavior.

Did loggers want the trees, or did they want to make the land treeless so other people could build small shelters and survive like the pioneer family? Split Toe sensed that the loggers did not care about pioneers or homesteading. What made them completely driven to remove a healthy forest so thoroughly at the expense of everything that lived within it—everything that depended on it? How could Mother Nature fix this?

Split Toe knew delicate dependencies linked all things, from the grandest tree to the smallest creature. But the loggers did not seem to make the connection or consider the importance of the forest to all living things. These humans were willing to take the trees and let everything else fend for itself.

Homesteaders tried to make something of what little was left.

Loggers were clever in everything they did. They knew about many things. Did they not know enough to understand that clearcutting the forest was a bigger issue than just the trees? More was involved. Split Toe knew the spirit current would find a way to explain their behavior to him someday. He needed to be patient, to spend more time watching. Every day he wondered if he misjudged the loggers.

Copyright @ 2025 by Daniel S. Ellens

Pre-order now on Amazon

Publication Date: March 31, 2026

Praise for FOREST LEGEND: 

“A captivating, gritty tale that blends folklore with raw, emotional depth, leaving readers both enthralled and moved by its unforgettable characters and powerful storytelling.”

– Michael Gabrion, Chairman, Muskegon River Watershed Assembly.