Mr Moedrick does not smash rocks out of choice; it is just that he has to try and make ends meet. In most years at the end of September this Indonesian farmer from central Java would have been preparing to harvest his rice crop. But this year is different, very different. Instead of having two acres of lush green paddy field at the back of his house, the 38-year-old father of three currently looks out on a barren grey dust bowl. Almost three-quarters of his crop has failed and what remains has a jaundiced tinge to it. The problem is simple. No water.
The polluted haze caused by massive forest fires in Sumatra and Kalimantan choking much of south-east Asia has not only attracted global attention. It has obscured the fact that tens of millions of people elsewhere in Indonesia are enduring the worst drought in more than 50 years.
More than 270 people have died from drought-related causes in Irian Jaya, the Indonesian half of New Guinea. But it is the heartlands of Java, where the bulk of the country's staple foods are grown, that the effects of eight months of no rain are starting to bite hardest.
It is also here that the long-term economic impact will be greatest. There are up to 2,000 farmers in each square kilometre in central Java. All are struggling to maintain a precarious existence and few earn much more than the minimum wage of £30 a month. Mr Moedrick said: "Even with the extra money I earn from smashing rocks, my income this year will be down by about 60 per cent."
People in his district of Boyolali, about 30 miles north of the royal city of Yogyakarta, are comparatively lucky. There is still a semi-stagnant trickle running through a few rivers in the area and some wells have not yet dried up. Mr Moedrick said, however, they would all be dry within a month unless it started raining. No prolonged rain has been forecast until December.
The head of the state logistics agency, Mr Beddu Amang, however, said only yesterday that the country was coping with the drought in general, that rice stocks were sufficient and prices stable.
The reality is different. In Boyolali town market yesterday Ms Desy Arianawati said the price of rice had risen more than 20 per cent in the last three weeks and sweetcorn was 25 per cent more expensive. "It is true fruit is still the same price, but the quality is much lower," she said.
To try and beat the drought some farmers are growing crops, such as maize and cassava, that need less water. But even these are only half the height they should be and Ms Arianawati said they rarely produce good quality food. Dr Loekman Sutrisno, the head of rural and regional studies at Yogyakarta's Gajah Mada University says a national poverty crisis is a real possibility. "Millions of people, many of whom are already teetering on the brink, are likely to have major financial problems next year. And it's not happening just in Java. In Kalimantan, Sulawesi and elsewhere the situation is just as bad."
Government ministers say El Nino, the disruption of ocean current in the tropical Pacific that causes sea temperatures to rise, is to blame for the drought. "But that's little comfort to those who are suffering," Dr Sutrisno said. "Knowing that El Nino ruined your crops won't pay next year's bills."