If your yard is so badly flooded that quacking ducks are paddling gleefully under the clothesline, it's time to make some choices and get things under control. You can adopt the ducks and plant water lilies and a rice paddy, or you can remove the water. With nothing on hand but a garden hose, you may think you're up a proverbial creek without any oars. Not so -- that hose is worth its weight in gold as a siphon. Contrary to what you may have heard, you're not going to have to suck on the end of the hose to work a small miracle.

1 Locate a receptacle -- a spot to deposit the unwanted water where it won't hurt anything else -- such as a street drain or a nearby ditch or culvert.

2 Gather the hose into a loose coil. Drop one end of it into the middle of the flooded area.

3 Take a step or two toward the receptacle and submerge the rest of the coiled hose completely. Hold it under the water until you don't see bubbles coming to the surface from either end, which indicates the hose is full of water. It now contains powerful suction action that's just waiting for a place to happen.

4 Cover the hose end closest to you tightly with your palm to create a seal. This prevents water from leaking out of the hose and ruining the suction built up within it.

5 Hold the hose end as low to the ground as you can and drag it toward the receptacle. Keep checking backward to make sure the flood end of the hose remains under water or your siphon won't work.

6 Squat down at the receptacle. Lower the hose end as close to the ground as you can and point it at the receptacle. Remove your hand from the end of the hose. Water will gush out right away and will continue draining until the flood end is no longer submerged.

7 Move the garden hose around to any other flooded areas of your yard and repeat as needed.

Warning Pick up a middle section of the hose and keep it elevated while the water is running if the receptacle is at a higher ground level than the flood is. Once the siphoning process begins, the water molecules will continue to "stick" to each other and drag themselves out of the hose -- even uphill.

About the Author A full-time writer since 2007, Axl J. Amistaadt is a DMS 2013 Outstanding Contributor Award recipient. He publishes online articles with major focus on pets, wildlife, gardening and fitness. He also covers parenting, juvenile science experiments, cooking and alternative/home remedies. Amistaadt has written book reviews for Work At Home Truth.

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