the Aspen Ranger District of the White River National Forest has guidelines for what to do in a thunderstorm? They stress that they are only guidelines since lightning can be very inconsistent. The guidelines are:

In a thunderstorm

• Take cover indoors whenever possible
• Stay out of doorways and away from windows with aluminum frames
• Avoid trees. Lightning often hits trees, travels down the trunk and may explode the bark. The charge then spreads out on the ground.
• Go to a low lying area; brush is better than trees because it has "dispersed streamers", which do not act as lightning rods. Stay off the ridges and peaks of mountains, roofs, or towers of buildings.
• Take cover in a metal topped vehicle when it's not possible to go inside a building. Do not touch any metal parts of the vehicle. The rubber tires do not provide protection from lightning (nor do rubber soled shoes).
• Turn off your electronic devices (radios, microwaves, televisions) and avoid actions that would generate static.
• Use surge protectors on electrical devices.
• Make your body a single point on the ground by putting your ankles and knees together and then crouching down. This posture lessens your chances of being a lightening rod and having a charge enter one foot from the ground, travel through your vital organs and exiting through your other foot. Another suggested position is to drop to your knees and bend forward, putting your hands on your knees. Do not lie flat on the ground because electrical current from a strike can easily travel through your vital organs this way.
• Get away from other people. This will lessen the target size.
• Get away from rocks and boulder fields. If you are hiking or camping get off the rocks. Lightning tends to travel the route of least resistance, and water is a great conductor from the ground to the sky (our bodies are 70% water, as are trees.) Rocks hold very little water so your body would become the conductor.

From Pitkin County Public Works Land Manager, Crystal Yates-White

Summer is almost over!  And what a wet one it has been!  And our Noxious Weeds --- especially thistles --- have been drinking it up.  As a result, I have been seeing a lot of new thistle growth, even in areas that were treated with herbicide earlier in the season.  The reasons for this are several:

1) Some of these thistles were rosettes earlier in the summer and I missed them when we sprayed.  Now, with all the rain, they have grown tall and visible.

2) In the case of Canada Thistle, these are new shoots of Canada’s extensive underground root system.  It can take several years to completely kill the root system of a Canada Thistle infestation that has become well established.  That means after you spray, there still may be some viable roots under the surface.  When conditions are good (like with all this rain) the plant can gather up enough strength to shoot up some new stalks in late summer/fall.  Much of the new growth I have been seeing in Old Snowmass is Canada Thistle, much of it for this reason.

3) It rained enough right after the weeds were sprayed that the herbicide didn’t "take".  Typically, for Milestone, Telar, or Banvel applications, a 6 hour window between spraying and a light rain is enough.  However, it is possible that the heavy rains we have been getting may have washed off some of your herbicide if it rained the afternoon after you sprayed.  Make sure you are using a good dose of a good surfactant and watching the weather forecast!  Don’t spray on stormy days if you can help it!

Whatever the reason for it, re-growth is happening.  This means it is important to check those areas you thought you took care of in June and July.  You may be surprised to find good healthy stands of thistles, with their purple flowers getting ready to start producing white fluffy seeds.  If your thistles are in late flower or seed, it may be time to start cutting.  Herbicides are much less effective on late-flowering weeds.  Budding and early-flower plants can still be sprayed.

An important part of effective weed management is monitoring and follow-up.  My County Crews will spend most of September going back over their work, cutting or pulling any noxious weed stragglers.  This will help protect all the work and money we invested in chemical control earlier in the summer… I recommend you do the same on your property!

We all want to do everything possible to protect our private information. Even as we think we have done all we can to secure our information, a new potential avenue for obtaining individual and company information emerges. A recent CBS News investigation, for example, reported that most digital copiers since 2002 contain a hard drive that stores an image of each document it handles, including bank records, tax data, SSNs, paychecks, bills, and medical records. With an expert's assistance, CBS used free software to obtain images of thousands of documents in a half day's time from used copiers it purchased for about $300 each. So the caveat is to wipe copier hard drives before ridding yourself of them.

September is the time to make final plans to move houseplants that have been summering outdoors before the first frost arrives. When temperatures are in the 50-degree Fahrenheit range at night, it's time to bring them back indoors.

Plan to check outside plants for pests before bringing indoors and wash them off to remove pests and dust.

Decide which plants are worth salvaging and which should be discarded. It is always nice to add new plants to your interior landscape.

Allow plants to make a gradual adjustment to the move indoors by bringing them in at night, but returning outside during the day. Do this over a couple of weeks before the first frost is expected in the area. This will help plants acclimate to the indoor growing conditions and the changes in temperature, light and humidity.