Things That Need Doin'

An Emberwood Sparks Tale

Abstract

Set against the stark beauty of a snow-covered Canadian ecovillage, Things That Need Doin’ explores the grief, guilt, and quiet transformation of Ansel Rademacher, a tech-savvy father mourning the death of his daughter, Elke. Living in semi-isolation after a painful divorce, Ansel returns to the remote cooperative land project where a family he once had hoped to build a sustainable future. Now a fading dream, the land hosts only two families: his own fractured legacy, and the Thorviks, who are radical homesteaders raising their ten-year-old son, Vaelin.

When Ansel encounters a strange shield inscribed with Nordic runes and experiences a haunting vision of a cedar grove, he dismisses it. But after rescuing Vaelin from a violent attack by a gyrfalcon deep in the woods, the incident opens a deeper mystery. Vaelin claims the land “sees them." The shield, the visions, and the Grove all point toward something ancient and sentient awakening within the land itself.

As Ansel and Vaelin forge a tentative connection, a new awareness begins to emerge—one shaped not only by spiritual resonance but by ecological systems and technological insight. Trail cam footage reveals not only corrupted data but a heat signature that pulses and vanishes, suggesting something real and hidden at work. Meanwhile, the Grove itself appears to awaken something in Ansel that neither therapy nor isolation could: a sense of belonging, purpose, and forward motion.

By the end, Ansel finds not just reconciliation with his grief, but a new name for the place he once called home: Emberwood Sparks. He begins to imagine new forms of robotic systems that support the hands of blue collar workers and collaborative infrastructure that uplifts overlooked families like the Thorviks. He starts to sketch a way forward rooted not in avoidance but in care.

At its heart, Things That Need Doin’ is a story about generational repair, the convergence of technology and myth, and the power of small choices to shape new legacies. Infused with Nordic symbolism, subtle mysticism, and the rural textures of the Interlake region, it quietly reclaims masculinity, grief, and community through acts of tenderness, repair, and listening.