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

[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. :)