[caption id="" align="alignright" width="200" caption="Milk Thistle Farm in Ghent, as seen in a recent photo from its website."][/caption]So... just as we were done cleaning up from the big holiday snow, another blast lands. Front page news... more school closings and front page stories featuring local accidents and school closings. Are the heavens working to get us all in shape shoveling, or just trying to spread the wealth to everyone who's got a snowplow or kids old enough to shovel for money?

So how has it stacked up? The Daily Mail reports that most Greene County schools were either closed or dismissed students early as a result of Friday’s winter storm, which brought moderate snowfall amounts to the region and created slushy but dangerous driving conditions. Plus, the storm prompted a snow emergency declaration in Cairo and caused the village of Catskill to enforce alternate side parking rules with parking on the even side of the street from 8 a.m. until 8 p.m. and the odd side of the street from 8 p.m. until 8 a.m., odnd even sides of the street designated by house numbers, and everthing in effect until further notice.

In Columbia County, which fared worse two weeks ago, the Register Star reports no schools canceled classes but did send students home early, and a number of accidents were reported. Meteorologist Kevin Lipton from the National Weather Service in Albany estimated that about 2 to 4 inches of snow had been dumped on Columbia County throughout Friday, with the largest burst of snowfall occurring between 4 and 5 p.m., and expected an additional 1 to 3 inches to fall throughout Friday evening. Locally, snowfall amounts could be higher, he noted.

No one would say whether this would be it for the season. As if...