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"  It was clear that the rock had to go. How it came to its stubborn rest in the meadow mattered less than how we&amp;#039;d move it. The big brute could have been deposited by a glacier, or some previous century&amp;#039;s farm boys may have wearied of sliding, rolling and cajoling it. But it was the rock that had the last word, and it stayed put, near a line of trees and brush on PM contributing editor Tom Klenck&amp;#039;s property. Tom had mowed around it for years and had grown tired of having a rock dictate how he cut his own meadow. So, on a late spring afternoon, we decided to do something about it. Digging the toes of our boots into the weeds enshrouding the rock, we resolved to break it up, if we could, and move it away. Look First I had to repress the urge to pick up a hammer and start the rock removal process by taking a few swings. That&amp;#039;s a waste of time in a job like this. The first step is exploratory. Get a clear look at the rock to determine its size and whether it has existing cracks to exploit. Ours was surrounded by some saplings and a lush stand of goldenrod. We chopped them down, then probed the rock&amp;#039;s perimeter with a 6-ft.-long wrecking bar. A profanity-laced hour later we determined that it went at least a couple of feet underground. We drew up a battle plan: Open existing cracks, then blast and saw our way through what remained. We grabbed a handful of steel wood-splitting wedges, donned safety glasses and drove the wedges into a long crack using a 10-pound sledge. Tom and I took turns playing John Henry, and 15 or 20 minutes of hard driving was all it took to loosen the rock&amp;#039;s top. It gave way with a satisfying pop, but it was heavy, around 500 pounds--and there it sat, smugly. Drastic measures were called for. Drill It and Shoot It  In rock-removal parlance, using explosives is called &amp;quot;shooting.&amp;quot; I&amp;#039;m not sure if anything about this work can be considered fun, exactly, but shooting a rock comes pretty close. We turned to new technology: the Micro-Blaster. Sold as a kit ($700 to $1700, depending on the model), it enables homeowners, contractors, landscapers and farmers to safely smash boulders. It makes less noise than a 22-cal. rifle and is so safe you don&amp;#039;t need a federal blaster&amp;#039;s license. This unique small-scale system uses pencil-thin cartridges containing smokeless powder. They&amp;#039;re inserted in 5/16-in.-dia. holes bored with a rotary hammer drill. Once placed, these are detonated mechanically, with a device powered by compressed air or a CO2 cartridge--the same kind used in paintball guns. We bored three holes in the slab and scrupulously cleaned out the dust and chips with compressed air supplied by a portable 5-gal. tank. Don&amp;#039;t make the mistake I did, of sticking your face above the hole as you clean. My safety glasses protected my eyes but the debris shot out with volcanic force, and it hurt. I&amp;#039;m glad my mouth was closed. It&amp;#039;s important that the bore be clean because it removes debris that can prevent the firing pin from striking the primer on the cartridge. We also scrubbed the bore with a brush that comes in the Micro-Blaster kit. Next came two cartridges per hole (the maximum), with the firing mechanism snugged at the top. We paid out the pneumatic hose from the three mechanisms, and led them to the detonating device. Standing back about 25 ft., I glanced nervously at Tom. &amp;quot;Ready?&amp;quot; I asked. He shrugged. I unlocked the device and slid its safety to the firing position. When I moved its latch forward to send the compressed air to the firing pins, the slab threw off a cloud of dust and instantly cracked. As I walked up through the smoke, I felt pretty cocky, a sledgehammer on my shoulder. It&amp;#039;s gratifying to make a big piece of rock submit. We easily broke the weakened material into manageable pieces and slid each onto a heavy wooden sled, known as a stone boat. Tom had built it just for this job. He then towed the debris into the woods using his John Deere. Cutting In To deal with the remaining stump--a massive piece of stone in its own right--we turned to a Husqvarna Cut-n-Break, a 71 cc wet-cutting saw with parallel diamond-grit blades. As a rental item, it costs about $100 a day, plus a blade-use fee. I&amp;#039;ll tell you something, explosives are satisfying, but so is giving full throttle to a big saw. Stone slurry, I learned, is the cutting agent that enables the blades to slice through rock as though it were lumber. I carefully laid the 9-in. spinning blades on the rock and pulled the saw back. A wickedly abrasive mixture of rock particles and water shot off the blades, onto the guard--and covered my boots. Rubber overshoes are advised while using this rig. I didn&amp;#039;t wear them, and I needed to get my work boots resoled afterward. Compared to a single-blade saw, this twin-blade machine is an innovation; it produces a channel that&amp;#039;s extremely deep--and wide. It forms two parallel kerfs separated by a 1/2-in.-wide stone band. I cut these kerfs, then set the saw down and took up the breaker bar that comes with it. This tool has a screwdriver tip on one end and a hook on the other. I snapped off the stone band using the screwdriver tip, then hooked out the debris. I continued until I had made a cut about 4 in. deep. Tom took over and made another cut parallel to mine, producing a free-standing rib about 2 in. wide. We made several of these and broke off each with a sledgehammer. One row at a time, we worked down until there was nothing left of the boulder but a dish-shaped remainder well below grade. We began to pry it up, but thought better of it. Instead, we grabbed shovels and backfilled the hole--a fitting end to a dirty job.  Swing Time  A rock is usually covered by weeds, vines or dirt, so we first cleared the way to expose its surface.  Driving wedges can widen existing cracks. Fire When Ready  Micro-Blaster cartridges are smokeless powder charges.   We bored holes in the rock, cleaned them, and placed the charges. Next, we slid the firing mechanism tube into the hole and led its hose back to a triggering device--a valve that permits air to flow to the pneumatically actuated firing pin. Once triggered, the expanding gas from the cartridges cracks the rock into manageable pieces. Cutting Class  We used a Cut-n-Break to transform the rock stump into breakable rows. We made sure to keep the water hose out of the way as we sawed down.  The 22-pound saw&amp;#039;s twin blades produce two kerfs. We snapped the stone between them and raked out the slices.  "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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