For my birthday, I asked for and received one of the most unusual gifts you could imagine ...

They worked grain by grain, meticulously tapping each bit of sand, laboring patiently for a week. And when they were finished, they did what most of us would find unthinkable ...

The old place looked like it had been hit by a hurricane: timbers collapsing, siding falling off, junk strewn everywhere. As it turns out ...