CANBERRA, Australia (AP) – An Australian farmer was unable to attend his aunt’s funeral due to pandemic restrictions, so he paid his respects with a new alternative: dozens of heart-shaped sheep of love.
The mourners watched this week a video shot with drones of pregnant sheep eating barley in a paddock while inadvertently expressing Ben Jackson’s affection for his beloved Aunt Deb.
Jackson was locked at the time at a state border on his farm in Guyra, New South Wales, 270 miles away.
“It took me a few things to do well … and the end result is what you see. That was as close to the heart as I could get, “Jackson said Thursday.
Jackson began experimenting with making forms with sheep to relieve the monotonous stress of cattle manual feeding during a devastating drought in much of Australia that broke the first months of the pandemic.
He discovered that if he wrote the names of his favorite bands with grain dropped from the back of a truck, the herd would take about the same shape for a few minutes.
“It definitely lifted the spirits in the drought,” Jackson said.
“This heart I made for my aunt certainly seems to have had an effect across Australia,” she added, referring to the emotional responses on social media.
“Maybe we all need to give each other a strong virtual hug,” he said.
Jackson said he was lucky enough to stay grain on his property after a plague of mice this year that followed the drought.
Continue to supplement the diet of pregnant sheep with grains to improve their condition before giving birth.
Calling all HuffPost superfans!
Sign up to be a founding member and help set up the next chapter of HuffPost