When Therrin called me last night, I got the pleasure of SAYING, WTF. I'll give him a pat on the back for laying it out there for the rest to see, and allowing the members here to dole out their years of exerience. I was on a vertical learning curve when I first started, I was a lot longer in the tooth than he is, and life experiences wakened that little voice we all have.
I was asked to look at a job at a park, a 32" poplar between 2 cabins about 8' apart. It went up about 24'and went co-dominant. The crotch had split and didn't stop until about 5' off the ground. My little voice said "Hey stupid you don't have the knowledge or the equipment to work on that thing". The little voice was right, the cabin owner asked what to do, I knew a guy form 120 miles away that loved working on hazard trees, I gave him a call. I often think back to that day, everytime I look at a tree that is seriously damaged. Dave Loraas was the first tree climber that I ever saw climb that hazard tree, he took me under his wing for a variety of tree work, unselfishly teaching me a lot of what he knows. The funny thing about it all was the fact that he didn't believe me when I relayed the size info to him, and at the completion of that removal, he politley asked me to NEVER call him again for that type of work.
We fumbled around, learning and applying our new knowledge, and eventually started using cranes for that Large, no LZ, hazardous stuff.
The point I am trying to make here is, if you have even an inkling of a though that your in over your head, You Probably are. This site has proved that there are people out there that are willing to help, internet learning is becoming an epidemic, ask you doctor next time you see him, after you have miss-diagnosed yourself. The Dr. will usually forgive you, a tree landing on your head doesn't care about you.
There has been a wealth of knowledge posted on this thread, but having someone on site to watch out for ya, or kick ya in the butt for listening and then doing your own thing is priceless. For the new guys out there, find someone to take you under their wing, male adult pride sometimes can be our undoing.