Fare Thee Well, "Witch's Finger"

Photo By John Hoff

This dead, limbless tree was in the backyard of HNC Chairman Peter Teachout for years, but some months ago...

It was sawed down and reduced to firewood as part of a ReBuilding Together effort, which I blogged about earlier. I've stayed in touch with one of the volunteers, the very lovely Anne-Marie, and a few days ago I gave her a tour of the neighborhood as she looks for a good deal on a house. Anne-Marie was curious whether the improvements started to Peter's yard had been completed.

She pulled up in front of 3020 6th St. N. to park.

"Um, we shouldn't park here," I told her. "This is a very active crack house." She turned around and parked on the other side of the street. Much better.

We rang Peter Teachout's doorbell, but the family wasn't home, so we peaked over the back fence. Yup, the walkways were complete. And the dead, limbless tree was gone. Peter's next-door neighbor, Scott, said he called that tree "The Finger" but I always thought it looked more malevolent than that. I insisted on calling it "The Witch's Finger." Above is a photo I took while the tree was still standing.

The Teachouts also have an interesting "lighting tree" in their back yard, and that has not gone away. It's still there, and still very cool, click here.