Crafty wrote in :

[snip]
This will most certainly work. The only problem is that there are a
LOT of nearby trees that I want to keep, and I don't want to catch
anything on fire. Has anyone tried anything similar to this?

When I was younger, my father used some stumping dynamite to remove several
large tree stumps. Fire wasn't the primary problem -- it was flying
debris. If you have anything valuable within several hundred yards of the
stump (like your house), don't even think about doing something like this.
Rocks, dirt, and chunks of wood go flying for a long distance -- much
further than you might expect.

There are also legal considerations; is it legal for you to build and
detonate your own bomb at that location? You should check with your local
fire/police department ahead of time -- you don't want to end up in jail
over a tree stump.