Renting a Boom Lift

     Let me just start off by saying that I really love my husband.  I love everything about him, even some of his little quirks that drive me crazy.  One of those quirks is his inability to get an idea out of his head once he has it, especially if it's an idea that's a solution to a problem.  He's definitely got a one-track mind when there's something to be fixed. He's very handy though and I love that he can fix most things around the house.  I don't love, however, when those fixes are expensive or dangerous.  As the title of this post indicates, we had one of those expensive and dangerous fixes going on at our house a couple weekends ago.
     As a second preface, it's important to note that we have a satellite dish on our roof for Directv.  That's how we get all of our shows, and more importantly, college football.  When there is something blocking the signal to the satellite the reception is terrible causing the image to freeze, break-up, lose sound, or even completely disappear for varying lengths of time.  This is very frustrating when watching suspenseful shows such as Burn Notice or college football games when crazy things can happen in a matter of seconds.  This has been happening at our house for a while and Chris discovered that it was due to the dense leaves of the trees along our driveway.
Problem: Leaves and branches blocking satellite signal
Solution 1: Have the Directv people come out and see if there's anywhere else we could move the dish to improve signal strength.  Since that would be the easiest solution, it didn't work. 
Solution 2: Rope chain saw (which I had never heard of before, but it exists and we now own one).  Chris and Blake (Kassie's boyfriend) tried to cut down some of the offending branches with this contraption with only limited success.  It was entertaining to watch and only mildly dangerous.
Solution 3: Ladder and pole saw.  Both of these items were borrowed, and while Chris was able to get some more branches down, he still couldn't reach or access the ones that were causing the most signal blockage.  Definitely a cheaper solution, but not as effective as hoped.
Solution 4: Tree-climbing spikes.  Yes, Chris actually suggested this.  No, I couldn't stop laughing.  Not an option.  Next solution please....
Solution 5: Renting a boom lift and borrowing a chain saw to get up into the tree and do some serious damage!  This, naturally, was the most dangerous and the most expensive option and therefore the most effective. It was actually quite entertaining to watch as well.  Chris' mom was in town for the weekend, and she brought out a chair and sat in the driveway and watched.  I hope one day I'm a seasoned mother like her who doesn't seem to worry when one of their children (or husband in my case) is 30 feet off the ground with a chain saw.  This did the trick!  I had to leave to help the Young Women with a service project, but Chris and his mom hauled 5 pick-up truck loads of branches to green waste.  We haven't had any satellite signal problems since.  Please enjoy some pictures of the event.