In this image taken from video, sheep form the shape of a heart in a field in Guyra, northern New South Wales, Australia, Thursday, Aug. 5, 2021. Ben Jackson, a sheep farmer stuck in lockdown, was unable to attend his aunt's funeral, has honored her memory with the ultimate tribute, sheep organized in the shape of a love heart. (Ben Jackson via AP)
An Australian farmer couldn’t go to his aunt’s funeral because of pandemic restrictions so he paid his respects with a novel alternative: dozens of sheep arranged in the shape of a love heart.
Drone-shot video of pregnant ewes munching barley in a paddock while unwittingly expressing Ben Jackson’s affection for his beloved Auntie Deb was viewed by mourners at her funeral in the city of Brisbane in Queensland state this week.
Jackson was locked down at the time across a state border at his farm in Guyra in New South Wales state, 430 kilometers (270 miles) away.
“It took me a few goes to get it right ... and the final result is what you see. That was as close to a heart as I could get it,” Jackson said on Thursday.
Jackson started experimenting with making shapes with sheep to relieve the monotonous stress of hand-feeding livestock during a devastating drought across most of Australia that broke in the early months of the pandemic.
He discovered that if he spelled the names of his favorite musical bands with grain dropped from the back of a truck that the flock would roughly adopt the same shape for several minutes.
“It certainly lifted my spirits back in the drought,” Jackson said.
“This heart that I’ve done for my auntie, it certainly seems like it’s had a bit of an effect across Australia,” he added, referring to emotional social media responses.
“Maybe we all just need to give ourselves a big virtual hug,” he said.
Jackson said he was lucky to have any grain left on his property after a mouse plague this year that followed the drought.
He continues to supplement the pregnant ewes’ diet with grain to improve their condition before they give birth.
Last year, CD sales grew for the first time since 2004, according to a new Recording Industry Association of America report. CDs were a leading format in the music industry in the 1990s when Spice Girls and TLC had us groovin'. If it feels like you've been hearing more golden oldies lately, you aren't alone. Classic music is having a serious moment, and it isn't likely to change any time soon. Baker Machado takes a closer look at what's driving this shift in the industry.
Lisa Whalen, managing director of automotive and mobility analysis at Morning Consult, joins Cheddar News to discuss Uber and Lyft's decision to enact price surcharges on riders.
A New Zealand couple who believed they had dug up the world’s largest potato had their dreams turned to mash after Guinness World Records wrote to say that scientific testing had found it wasn’t, in fact, a potato after all.
The Eiffel Tower has grown by six meters (nearly 20 feet) after engineers hoisted a new communications antenna at the very top of France’s most iconic landmark.
Two years into the pandemic, many of us have regained a sense of normalcy. However, those in the healthcare industry are still confronting the virus every day, dealing with the physical, mental and psychological stress of the ongoing pandemic. Ben Mirtes, CFO of Ingenovis Health and Lydia Mobley, a travel nurse with Faststaff, who has spent the last two years going from hotspot to hotspot, joined Cheddar’s Opening Bell to reflect on their experiences in healthcare, and discuss why they are optimistic about a path forward.
Catching you up on what you Need to Know on March 16, 2022, with updates on Ukraine and Russia, a container ship gets stuck in the Chesapeake Bay, Disney employees stage a walkout over the "Don't Say Gay" law in Florida, and NASA completes its first spacewalk of 2022.
Janet Balis, EY Marketing Practice Leader, joins Cheddar News at South by Southwest to break down what exactly the metaverse is, how brands can start to break into this experience, and why to keep the digital divide in mind as the metaverse grows.
