The Yule Log
A Christmas annual from a wood company in Wisconsin. Where the log in the name actually comes from, how to lay a fire that catches on the first try, three things to build on a Saturday with a child handing you the wrong tool, and twelve small things to do on the twelve nights.
This is the web edition, and it is the whole book.
Drawn, not photographed. The real pictures are being taken.
Contents.
Seven things, in three parts. Each one is its own page and each one ends. Start anywhere. Three are open so far and the rest arrive on the dates below, beginning November 7, 2026. The book is already finished. It just comes out the way a book like this used to.
Read
- Open
The real yule log.
Almost everything you have been told about this is repeated confidently and evidenced badly. Here is what the record actually shows, including the parts nobody can prove.
About six minutes to read.You need: Nothing - Open
Lay a fire that catches on the first try.
Build it upside down. The big wood goes on the bottom and the match goes on the top, and it burns cleaner, longer and without being poked.
Ten minutes to lay. Hours to burn.You need: A grown-up, A fireplace or a fire pit, Dry split wood, Kindling, One match
Build
- Open
Wood slice ornaments, and why they crack.
Cut a branch into discs and hang them on the tree. Some of them will split as they dry, and the reason they split is the most useful thing about wood there is.
An hour, then two weeks of waiting.You need: A branch, A fine-tooth saw, A drill, Sandpaper, String - November 7, 2026
The candle log.
One split log, three flat-bottomed holes, three tealights. It is the shortest route there is from a woodpile to a table that looks like somebody thought about it.
Arrives November 7, 2026. Wisconsin sets the clocks back at the start of November, and the evenings get long enough to want candles on the table.
- November 21, 2026
A peg rail that holds a full stocking.
Three pegs in a board. Bore the holes eight degrees uphill and the rail holds a loaded stocking all night. Bore them straight and it does not.
Arrives November 21, 2026. Stockings go up the week after Thanksgiving. The glue wants a night, so this arrives with a weekend to spare.
The table
- December 5, 2026
Cider on the stove.
Whole spices, low heat, and one temperature you must not go past. The number matters more than the recipe does.
Arrives December 5, 2026. The first truly dark, truly cold weekend of December.
- December 24, 2026
Twelve nights.
One small thing to do on each of the twelve nights of Christmas. None of them costs anything and none of them takes longer than an evening.
Arrives December 24, 2026. It starts on Christmas night. It would be a strange thing to hand somebody in October.
We were going to charge fifty dollars for this.
The plan was a collectible catalog with two covers, and about half the line hidden behind a printed code so that owning the book was the only way in. It was a beautiful object. It was also a shop charging admission at the door.
So the price is gone and so is the catalog. What is left is the part that was always the good part: the history, the builds, the twelve nights, the cider. Nothing here is hidden and nothing here needs a code. If you never buy anything from us, this is still yours.
There is more of this coming. We will send you a line when each part opens.
No weekly letter, no code to remember, and the annual stays free to read whether you join or not.
- September 5The real yule log
- September 26Lay a fire that catches on the first try
- October 10Wood slice ornaments, and why they crack
- November 7The candle log
- November 21A peg rail that holds a full stocking
- December 5Cider on the stove
- December 24Twelve nights
We are a wood company, and the wood is the slow part.
We are buying from small makers rather than drop-shipping a catalog we have never touched, and that takes the time it takes. The candle below is poured by hand in Madison. Every listing on the site says exactly where it stands.