Craig,

Beyond the helpful ideas for attaching a porch, I really enjoyed seeing your photos of the entire project - particularly the gin pole setup. The barns that I'm building at the moment are in the middle of an apple orchard and I don't have the option of bringing in a crane, even if I wanted to. (I don't have the team of draft horses, either, so I'll be hitching up to a tractor.) I also learned a lot from the photos of getting the top plates in place. Lots of info upon close inspection of the images. Thanks again!