I lived in Cdale between 94-99 and studied sculpture,specialized in metal casting and woodcarving. nevr took a forestry or arboriculture class, my loss. Started climbing for a guy early on, he was a little nuts, but we had a lot of fun. It was the sort of atypical intro to treework that would get most rookies shouted down on this forum. He had the equipment and the knowledge but an injured shoulder and no climber. Met him through a friend, and performed some pretty daunting climbing jobs my first week of work, having never climbed professionally before. Took apart a lightning exploded 80' 100+ year old tulip poplar my 2nd or 3rd day. makes me shudder to think about it. I was careful and never got hurt, and we never gaffed a prune job or topped a tree. I had a lot of previous experience handling a saw through my woodcarving and had been in and out of trees since I was two, I caught on pretty quick. He would bid all kinds of technical jobs then tell me how to do them. Not the kind of intro I would recommend to a beginner now that I'm a little more savvy, but wouldn't trade it for nothin.
You won't see me at TCI this year, I'm relocating to Portland,OR at the end of the month, where I have a climbing job waiting for me.
cheers
Joe Markovich