how to work with brick?

[mellowtigger]

I always have a slug problem in my gardens, so I want to encourage frogs and toads to live here.  They eat slugs.  I know I also have toads, because I accidentally picked one up yesterday, thinking it was just a clod of dirt to push back into a hole I dug.  I made an audible yelp when the clod of dirt moved in my hand. 

I want to make a toad house (or 2 or 3) to encourage toads to stay around plants that I frequently lose to the voracious slugs.  Porcelain ones look nice, but porcelain outdoors will not survive a harsh winter in Minnesota.  I need concrete to endure the weather.

Thin bricks look like the material I need, but how do I connect them into a whole structure?  I think mortar would work only for stationary objects.  These "houses", though, would likely be picked up and relocated occasionally.  I need something substantial to hold the bricks together.

Any ideas?  This kind of work is not my strong suit.

Comments

[foeclan]

https://www.thespruce.com/how-to-make-a-toad-house-1388582

Looks like a bucket or a pot would work.

[mellowtigger]

I looked into that alternative too. Some forum notes suggested that metal or plastic would get too hot underneath it. The house needs more thermal mass to slow the heating. Maybe that's more of a concern in lower latitudes? Clay pots are cheap, but I figured burying them in the ground would make them crumble almost as fast as the porcelain. I might have to find a way of gluing rocks to the rim of a pot to build a crude base for it to sit on, providing shade.

Or... use a plastic pot and figure out a way of securing the thin bricks as heatshield shelter for the pot, maybe?

[bitterlawngnome]

You need chickens :)

[mellowtigger]

I've pondered that too, more than once. I suspect cleanup would eventually annoy me. And ensuring food/water in the coldest days of winter. But they'd be nice to have around (just as critters), and I'd certainly eat the eggs. Plenty of pros/cons to ponder.

[bitterlawngnome]

Do you have or see toads in the garden?

[mellowtigger]

Yes. I only notice them (because of their dark brown dirt color) when I'm digging and disturb them, but I see some every year.

[bitterlawngnome]

Wow nice. They have died off in a lot of urban areas thanks to Batrachochytrium.

[mellowtigger]

Yikes. :(

I credit their existence here to the full-block-sized drainage pond located a block away from me. I hope this year to get a good recording of their big mating crescendo. The first time I ever heard it, I thought it was some distant house or car alarm, a deep WOOOooo WOOOOoooo WOOOOooo. As I walked closer to the pond, I realized it was them, with individual calls all synching into a larger pattern of volume. It only lasts about half a day at that intensity. It falls off sharply and lasts only another day or two.

I want to catch it on video this year.

[bitterlawngnome]

Oh how cool! I hope you do.

[mellowtigger]

Oh! Actually...
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1RFqnm388-z30VFfxeLfgcos0mWYu2Tui/view?usp=sharing

That's one I did well after the peak last year. It offers only proof of some singing at the pond. It's not like the major sound the day or two earlier.

[bitterlawngnome]

wow and even that's pretty loud

[mellowtigger]

And the date on the file is May 17th. Hopefully the next mating call will arrive within 2 weeks. As long as it's not on a Monday (when I drive to work), then I should be able to get a good recording this time. :)