Hapless rookie farmer day

I'm back, and for all intents and purposes I am well again, but two events that occurred today make me wonder if I am running on full mental capacity:

(1) I managed to lock myself in the henhouse. Don't ask me how I did it; the henhouse only locks from the outside. All I know is, I went to open the door to leave and the latch was stuck in the half-closed position. The s.o. came to rescue me, but only after I yelled his name about 10 times. "I heard you the first time," he said, "but I was in the middle of cleaning a paintbrush, and you didn't sound like you were really in trouble." Gah!

(2) While I was putting the ducks up for the night, Gracie (who had been tied up outside while we were doing outdoor chores) escaped, trailing a purportedly unbreakable steel cable behind her. She started dancing around the outside of the duck pen, trying to get in on the action. Horrified, I leapt out of the pen--leaving the gate open behind me--and with my bare hand grabbed the steel cable, which of course gave me the mother of all ropeburns. The only saving grace was that the ducks, perhaps because there was a crazy-ass dog outside their pen, stayed put.

*sigh*