Michigan Forest Life - February 8, 2026

Hello friends,

Animals, including humans, are challenged in life by basic requirements for survival: food, water, shelter. All of these are amplified in colder climates during the winter season.  For modern humans, two more secondary requirements could be added to the list: fuel (to warm our shelters, cook our food, and keep our water from freezing), and transportation (which enables everything else). As humans, we have evolved beyond thinking of things in those terms.  We think of the money it takes to get the things we need (food, water, shelter), how we will produce the stream of money to sustain the things we need, and the transportation that will enable us to establish that stream of money.  If we are lucky, we have something left over for the things we want, but do not really need. Humans plan. We develop necessary skills and spend time with formal education. We learn from our parents, from trial and error, and by combining all of these things with our imagination. We create strategies for life. But, to what extent do we still rely on the human animal instinct? Have we put it so far in the background of all of the modern ways that we do not see it or understand it anymore. And with the growing AI crutch, what will become of the human animal instinct?

What is instinct for humans? For wild animals, it is a primary factor that governs individual survival and the survival of the species. It links sight, smell, sound, and touch to memory and experience. Is it what parent animals teach their young or is it something more primal than that? Something that includes forces of nature that are biological, developmental, and perhaps seasonal. 

Animals know how to survive. Their instinct helps them find food, water, and shelter. A bird knows what to eat (instinct). It builds a nest (instinct). When the bird migrates in the fall (instinct), a mouse discovers the nest and makes its winter home there (instinct). It plans (instinct). It builds up a cache of food (instinct) and adds its own insulation top on the nest (instinct). It may be the mouse’s first winter, but the mouse is already an adult and knows what to do. What are the things humans already know instinctively to do? As civilized life

becomes more dependent on civilization itself, will humans stop recognizing what nature is trying to tell us? What about AI? Will humans be better off following the path of AI as it shows us what to do each day? What direction to turn. What clothes to wear. What food to prepare and how to cook it. Will we be better off when it does the work for us? … sets the heat in our shelters, drives our cars, designs and builds our machines, farms our fields, and creates our books, our music, our art. Or are humans better off by following the pull of natural human instinct?  How long before humans no longer feel the instinctive pull? What will we do when the power goes out? Will we remember how the world works? Who will go to the forest (Photo 1)?

I wish you food, water, and shelter, and the know-how of how to get it – how to recognize the instinctive pull.

Please enjoy another teaser from FOREST LEGEND: THE TALE OF OL’ SPLIT TOE, preview

snippet 20 of 27 (Photo 2). 

Until next time,

Dan

Excerpt from Chapter 25

AD 1974 - The three hunters each came out of their spots and wandered carefully to where Split Toe came up from the river. None really knew what had happened. There were a few drops of blood in the snow, a small patch of hair, and some distinctive hoof prints, larger than any prints they had seen in their lives.

The fellow who was positioned at the top of the bluff could see where Split Toe had run back across the river on the east side. They found another drop of blood in the snow. They each searched the ground around them, pointing, scratching their heads in astonishment, wondering how they could have missed. They made their own tracks all around those of Split Toe.

“He certainly is a wise old deer,” the man who fired from two hundred yards to the south said quietly.

“You rarely see ‘em like that one,” said the one whose shot penetrated Split Toe’s neck.

The third man simply remained silent, not wanting to admit how nervous he’d been with the deer of his dreams in his sights.

The fellow to the south walked back to his blind, while the man whose shot had actually hit Split Toe crossed the river and began to follow the trail along with the bluff hunter. It was not such a difficult trail to follow. There was no mistaking the distinctive tracks. While they found only a few more drops of blood, they could see that the deer was racing along an ancient trail.

Copyright @2026 by Daniel S. Ellens

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Publication Date: March 31, 2026

Praise for FOREST LEGEND:

“Dan Ellens has written a novel of impressive quality, gleaned from 2,500 solitary nights spent in a remote forest sanctuary of his own design. Within the midst, the author’s spirit blends with that of Ol’ Split Toe, a timeless forest presence since the last glacial recession and a giant force, purveyor and critic of mankind’s clever ways, with an imposing survivalist storyline fortified by a strong didactic undercurrent. Forest Legend bridges an immense readership gap, from the adventurous needs of young adults readers to the varied callings of serious minded adults.”

– J. August Lithen, Author of The Road to Marion Town: The Settlement of Osceola County, State of Michigan.