I always climbed as a little kid, you couldnt keep my inside. I was always building forts in the trees. My stepfather came into my life when I was 6 or 7 years old. He married my mom and we all moved from Kentucky to Idaho. He owned a small company while in Kentucky , but was hoping to start something bigger, something fresh and new. It was between the summer of fourth and fifth grade that I started helping at the jobs, staging brush, dragging brush, moving wood, and raking. I did that all summer long. It wasn't until the following year, my stepfather (Charlie) hired on another climber (Bret). I will never forget the job nor where it was for as long as I live. The job at hand was a tall pine tree, about 75'-80' tall, in the back yard in between two houses and there was a chainlink fence on both sides of the tree. Anyways, as Bret started ascending the tree and cutting limbs as he went, the sound of the saw started to attract more and more people, I was noticing a small gathering across the street in the neighbors yard. It was then as I was dragging some brush out to the front of the house, I could over hear some of them talking about how high up he was and sooo on and sooo on. I turned around and as I looked up at him, thinking to myself..."damn thats cool". That is when I heard someone say... "That is one hell of a man! I couldn't do that if I tried"! .... I know it's kinda cheesy, but that is when the light bulb went off in my head and I wanted people to gather and watch me...saying the same thing about me. I wanted to be the "man". HAHA. Well, later that summer I stepped into my first saddle and never turned back. I didn't get to climb allot on the jobs, but I was a fulltime weekend climber. I would say somewhere around 13-14 is the time I started doing more climbing on jobs during the summer months and some weekends when school was going. When I turned 16, I became I fulltime climber when needed, two to three times a week. It really kicked in when we moved back to Kentucky and I moved out of the house at 17, I got my own place and a fulltime job with a company in Louisville. To make a really long story short. I was at my new job a few months when the companys only climber quit. The boss knew I had some previous experiance climbing and asked if I was up to the task. It was the scariest thing I have ever done, I had to fill some pretty big shoes and learn so many things in such a short time span. I finally made it! I'm the man! I'm the one doing what most won't! The adrenaline is still pumping after all these years. Guess I could have just just said I been climbing for atleast 25+ years, insted of some long drawn out story!! Oh well.........
