Looking for info on the upcoming New Puzzle Pattern Contest? Look here, or simply scroll through previous posts. Detailed instructions will be posted August 1.

Sometimes things don’t go the way I plan. During the first stint out here at the lodge site, internet access was pretty regular. This time, however, that has not been the case.

This is how we get online. The ropes in the background are for drying damp sleeping bags, blankets, etc. in the sun. They have not been in use for a while. That is to say it’s been raining, with clouds down to the deck for a few days. We had no internet access, and I figured it was a weather thing. Then the clouds lifted and the rain became intermittent (I almost said “stopped,” but that wouldn’t be accurate). Still no internet access.

Now, no one here has any experience with satellite dishes, but it’s not as though we can call a repair person and get him/her out here in a timely fashion. Instead, we scratched our heads and looked hard at the equipment. I used the satellite phone to call the lodge (and dish) owner for advice.

The first thing we did was cut the tall grass in front of the dish. See how low it points in the first picture? And see how tall the grass has grown? It’s waist-high now.

But that didn’t seem to work.

Next, we (and by “we” I mean “Mike”) tweaked the direction of the dish up, thinking that perhaps gravity and/or wind had pulled it down since installation. I watched the lights on the modem to see if/when they lit up again.

Still no internet.

Finally, we tweaked the direction of the dish sideways, and–Bingo!–we were online again.

So there you have it. Add “satellite dish repair” to Mike’s resume.