just watching tons of training videos. Too old to work with a crew. It's really a young man's game. The problem with vids is that it is very easy to underestimate how difficult a specific task is when you see an expert doing it. This weekend I decided to practice limb walking and cutting a big limb. Well, turns out limb walking is not that easy if your tie in point is in line with the limb. Obvious, of course, since you have no leverage, but still unnerving when you need to balance on there. I guess nobody does videos of that specific issue, so I was not mentally prepared. Then I wanted to see if I could just hang from the limb itself to cut it. Well, actually doing it (vs watching somebody doing it) was very physically uncomfortable and not going to be easy at all to maneuver. Stuff like that. It really is quite a difficult set of skills to acquire. And gravity is a b@tch. Of course, it does not help that I'm doing it on the cheap. Using knots instead of mechanical devices. All the gear is very expensive, I'm guessing because only pros use it and it's therefore tax deductible for businesses and at the high rates they are charging they don't care. You can do all of it with knots, but it's much harder. Having said that, it's very enjoyable to learn and quite interesting skills. As stated earlier, the knots aspect is really fascinating. Never knew there was a world of knots out there with very specific and generally contradictory requirements to achieve. Doing just recreational tree climbing would be great too and maybe better to start with, but it's great to save a ton of money by doing tree work yourself (although at considerable risk admittedly).