The same view as two weeks ago. (Refer to May 13th photos) Note that the pines are starting to be released from the snow.



All but a couple bears I have seen in two week has been big males like this one who came by the cabin.




I snowshoed across the lake and climbed far up to examine this den that I saw being vacated 4 day previously. It was not a deep den. When I find a big one that goes far in, I will try to photograph it.

(Click on any Image to see a higher resolution version)

I have been having one computer problem after another. First was with my local server in Petropavlovsk (PK) when I got there three weeks ago. All was OK for a day or two but then I could not send mail. After consulting with the local server office, I could send and not receive my mail. Eventually I gave up and flew south to our cabin.

Once here, I tried to hook up to the satellite connection and found I could not. I had had five years of no problems doing this. With considerable head scratching I figured out the computer had somehow dumped all the necessary settings for connecting to the satellite and also the settings to access my mail when I did eventually get through to the server in Calgary were gone. With the help of various people I could get on the satellite phone which did work, it took me ten days to work out the problem. Most importantly, I found a toll free number in the menu of the phone that connected me to trouble shooters in Newfoundland, Canada. The first guy I talked to had trouble giving instructions to a person with so little savvy as I had back then. I decided there must be shifts at this help desk so I kept calling at various times and eventually got a wonderful, patient person who realized I, with his help, had to solve the problem if it was to be solved. I could not take my problem under my arm to the shop. He took me into the computer and carefully talked me through all the intricacies that so many smart people seem to know naturally how to do somehow. Eventually, I was able to send the last web entry.

My next problem was more complex and self inflicted; a wreck I was sure had ended all possibilities of data communication. It was a result of me hooking up my computer directly to a big car battery because of a discovery that it uses much less power than inverting 12 volts to 110 volts and using my regular cord hook up.

I was in a hurry because I was sending a couple photos to Tatiana Gordienko in PK who is working on her doctorate thesis on the bears here. (Maureen and I are her field assistants). While in the process of sending these files, which take about a half hour at US $3.50/minute, I realized suddenly that the voltage in the battery was very low and the computer was about to shut down. If it did, I would have to re-send the photos, paying twice. I grabbed my jumper cables to connect our regular bank of storage batteries to the car battery, hooked to my computer. You guess it -- I connected the polls backward and there was the same loud snap and big spark that you get when jump a car the wrong way. This is the wrong way to shut down your computer, but I was quite sure I would never see that little message that Microsoft has come up on the screen when you have pushed the off switch instead of doing the proper shutdown procedure. It was as lifeless as a chunk of wet fire wood. Anyway, I took the hard drive out and tucked it away in a safe place and also packed the computer and satellite phone away too, because neither was of much use anymore.

Later in the afternoon I got to thinking that I might as well have a look inside, not that I would have a clue as to what I was looking at. I took it completely apart which took me several hours because I didn't know how to do things like find a little hidden latch that removed the key board which aloud me to get at more little screws. After I did manage to disassemble it I could see no damage, no melted things. Seeing no melted gobs, I guessed that there was something in there to protect it from people stupidly doing what I did, hooking it up to backwards +and -. I knew approximately, whatever this thing was, it would be near the power in socket. Carefully looking in that area, I found what I thought was perhaps a diode, or whatever those things are. With some solder and small wire I made a bypass around it and then laboriously put the computer back together. The result, after a long struggle to remember what went where and trying to end up with a minimum of spare parts, it did not work. Not a big surprise. I put it back in the computer case, resigned to the fact that I was alone in even a more complete way than I already was.

The next day, after getting back from a long walk to see if I could find Biscuit or any other bears coming out of their dens, I took it back out of the case and apart again to have another look. It took me a while to notice, but I eventually found that my solder did not attach properly at one end of my tiny bypass, so I re-attached it. These are very small things and my eyes are poor, the solder tool is rather large. I put on an second pair of glasses over top my trifocals which allowed me to get my nose close down in there and I could just make out what I was doing.

I proceeded very slowly on the re-assembly and even found where two of the three screws that were left over from the first assembly belonged. There was still one weird little stainless steel spring left over. It had fallen out from somewhere, without me seeing where, the first time I took the thing apart. It was late and I didn't want go to bed with a disappointment after so much work, so I put my tools away and did not try turning it on.

The next morning after breakfast, it was time. I left the hard drive out and pressed the button. This time it powered up and told me there was a hard drive problem so I put that in and -- incredible! There was that message. "Your computer was shut down improperly". I will never see that admonishment again without laughing. And it seems to work fine with less parts. I must say that for me who knows so little about -- and I kind of hate things to do with electricity, this was on the level of putting the Kolb back together after it blew over in the wind. I was amazed at myself. Of course with no diode, if I ever do the same stupid thing again, or it gets too much power, the computer will burn up for sure the next time, taking with it the hard drive.

Maureen is bringing another one when she comes.

-Charlie