Spring is sprung, old newspapers and other oddities of March

Yesterday morning on the way to Eagle Marsh to help out with a cleanup day, Mike said it felt like spring was in the air. I, wearing a winter coat, hat and mittens, disagreed.  Today though, it did feel like spring (the temperatures in the 50s didn't hurt!)

Eagle Marsh is a nature preserve at the edge of Fort Wayne that our family volunteers at as trail guides.  Little River Wetlands Project is the land owner for the marsh and several other tracts of land in the Little River Valley.  The Little River (sometimes it is called the Little Wabash) has it's headwaters in Eagle Marsh and flows into the Wabash River in Huntington.  The French Voyageurs called it the Joyful River.  Leaving Quebec, they had to paddle upstream against the St Lawrence, lakes Ontario and Erie and the Maumee.  By the time they finished the relatively short portage over to the Little River, it was all downstream to New Orleans - joyful indeed!

With all the snow on the ground, litter wasn't as easy to find as it will be once the snow is all gone, but we found a fair amount.  Pete was carrying the recycling bag and snagging pieces of newspaper.  He found this one:

The date is Thursday August 12, 1999!

This paper was in remarkably good shape for a 14 year old newspaper.  I assume it blew off a truck taking it to the recycling center a mile or so down the road, but really, who has 14 year old newspapers to recycle?

After we finished our clean up we headed back to our bus stop and waited for our ride home.

Today we  didn't do much beyond church in the morning. Tomorrow is a work day and then on Tuesday the vacation adventure begins!