Quicksand Fans

Shower stall full of shipping popcorn.

(Disclaimer - not my original idea)

Mattress bag and a family-sized bottle of lotion.

I’ve tried a lot of different mixes in the tub during the winter months over the years with mixed results. Probably the best balance between a goopy quicksand like experience and something easy to clean/hide are water absorbent polymer crystals. More commonly seen as gellibaff. An easier and cheaper way to fill a bath in bulk is to go to a lowes or Home Depot and grab a few pounds of the stuff. Soil moist and Miracle Grow I know off the top of my head make it as a plant watering aide but it’s the same stuff just without coloring and you can fill a large tub for roughly $30. When you’re done, dump a bunch of salt in there and mix it. Shrinks it down small enough to go right down the drain with ease and it’s biodegradable so you don’t have to worry about messing anything up.

Gets you that goopy feel but none of the sticking and staining. Just be sure to wash out your ears and blow your nose afterwards!

I’ve tried a few times to dig holes on my property but its so rocky, it’s hard to dig much deeper than a couple of feet, and then if you try to make mud out of the dirt, your legs get shredded by all the rocks unless you’re wearing “Kevlar” pants.

If I was to do DIY quicksand, I’d just use the beginning of my story as a guidebook The only problem for me is, I’m not as industrious as Nikki, and I’d probably need one or two dump trucks of top soil to make it work where I’m at.

Fun fact, “DIY Quicksand” was an early idea for the title of my story.

Aaron White wrote:
Yeah, digging isn't exactly an option at my place either. Besides, I'm looking for something that doesn't leave an obvious trail of evidence...you know, like a big-ass muddy hole in the back yard

Yeah, like Nikki’s property, there's a few secluded nooks and crannies so small holes easily go unnoticed in those places. But you got a point I neglected to consider in my reply, a “big-ass” hole would be a little too obvious (kinda like two lotion-soaked mattress’)

Just out of curiosity, did you happen to see my reply to your reply on my story? Just wondering cause I don’t have a lot of experience with forms and out of six replies I've gotten, all of which I’ve replied to, so far, no one has ever replied to my reply on their reply (that came out kinda funny lol) so I just wasn’t sure if I was replying correctly to other members replies or not.

Don't know if this counts as DYI
Now the the Northeast is going through the big melt-off of snow all the streams in the middle of the woods are flowing pretty good.
Hike in with two metal pipes -
find a sandy or fine gravel site along side the stream. Sink one pipe at an angel into the semi-dry land and then attach the other pipe to catch the flow of water from the steam into the sunken pipe??
In my head it seems it would work (not sure about real life LOL )

I had a 220 litre water butt (50 gal rain barrel) - about 36" internal height and 18" internal diameter. Seal up the tap/spigot holes with a couple of tap hole plugs from the plumbing section, add filling of your choice and enjoy. You may want to find a short waterproof ladder to aid getting in and out.
You can adjust the depth by just scooping your chosen filling out of the top into another container.
The barrel I used was just too narrow for me to crouch down in, but I do my sinking in boots or waders so didnt need the depth for full immersion.

And you can do this indoors - 24hr, 365days a year, no issues with bad weather, poor lighting or unwanted visitors - as long as you have a private room

For filling I used Clumping cat litter (aka granulated clay) which I simply bought from the grocery store a couple of bags at a time, plus water and a generous splash of Dettol or similar detergent which seems to stop the mud smelling stagnant - wearing boots and not bare skin I didnt have to worry so much about grit.
One issue with standing water/mud indoors is the damp and condensation which caught me out at first, then I purchased some damp trap moisture absorbers from the local cheapo store which resolved the issue.

Aaron White wrote:

dlodoski wrote:Shower stall full of shipping popcorn.

(Disclaimer - not my original idea)

Not gonna lie...I never would have thought of that.

And if you use the popcorn made from potato starch, just turn on the shower and it will dissolve and go down the drain, easy cleanup.

Lots of great ideas in this thread, for a topic that I've put way too much time into pondering. I just haven't had the chance to experiment yet!

As a modifier for the packing peanuts idea: I wonder if soaking the peanuts in glue would give them the stickiness to make them a real trap. Like, you have a pit, and as you fill it with packing peanuts, you drizzle in some glue/goop/slime. As long as the slime doesn't settle to the bottom, you'd have a pit that you could sink into that is less dense than the human body, making "real" quicksand. See also: bean bag stuffing.

If this idea did work, though, it might make for something actually unnaturally dangerous, in which case I would strongly recommend never creating a pit deeper than the subject is tall.

I'll give this idea a small-scale try sometime. Lots of unanswered questions about how it would work.