Showing Most recent stories 8
Nothing wasted
Hunt and harvest · breaking down the day
Someone stood next to me and showed me how to break it down properly, start to finish, nothing wasted. I drove home with meat for my family and felt useful for the first time in months.
Army veteran · hunt and harvest
Morning under the gums
Walked-up hunt · two mates
I spent twenty years reading situations for threat. Out here I am learning to read a hillside instead. Same skill, completely different nervous system.
Former police officer · walked-up hunt
Leading her out
Equine program · paddock
I came for one session to keep my wife happy. I have not missed a Thursday since. It is the one hour of the week where I am not managing anybody.
Firefighter · round pen
Hot steel, quiet head
Thursday workshop · the forge
Three hours at the forge and my head is quiet. You cannot think about anything else when there is hot steel in front of you. That is the whole medicine.
Ex-Navy · Thursday workshop
Midnight in the shed
Field to table · camp kitchen
We were in a shed until midnight making salami and arguing about how much fennel goes in. Four days away and nobody asked me one question about my discharge.
Ex-RAAF · field to table
She knew before I did
Equine program · round pen
You cannot bluff a horse. She knew I was wound up before I did, and she would not move until I dropped my shoulders. No psychologist has ever got there that fast.
Paramedic · equine program
The kids came too
Family day · nobody on best behaviour
My kids got to see me relaxed around other people. They had not seen that version of their dad in a long time. That mattered more than anything it did for me.
Veteran · family day
Nine hundred seedlings
Working bee · planting day
Nine hundred seedlings in one day. Nobody asked what I did before, and by lunch I had stopped rehearsing the answer.
SES volunteer · working bee
A year of ordinary Thursdays
We’re normal people doing normal things. An hour in a round pen, three hours at a forge, a family session where the kids come too and nobody has to be on their best behaviour.
Be in the next onePhotos by volunteers, shared with permission.
