What started as storm damage has grown into one of Minneapolis’ quirkiest summer traditions. Each year, thousands of people gather at the home of John and Amy Higgins to watch something most have never seen before: a 20-foot-tall wooden No. 2 pencil getting sharpened. The pencil stands in the couple’s front yard, where it began as a bur oak tree. In May of 2017, a windstorm snapped the top off the tree, leaving only the rooted trunk behind. Rather than cutting it down, the Higgins family invited local sculptor Curtis Ingvoldstad to do something else entirely, reported Smithsonian Magazine…